Custom «Social Services» Essay Paper Sample

The number of illegal immigrants in the US has constantly increased for the last 20 years. The increasing number is viewed as a threat on the social services like education, medical services, and food among others. Whether these people should have the right to access these services has been a big debate for a long time. Many have the opinion that they should access while others are against that. Examining this issue critically, it is by far important to allow these illegal immigrants to access these services. Most of these services like medical attention are offered freely to the citizens because the government owns most hospitals and they are not-profit organizations (Burger 36).

Professor Lipman, in 2007, gave this argument to support illegal immigrants on access to social services "Unauthorized workers are a critical component of our micro and macro economies today and in the projected next several decades as almost 78 million boomers prepare to retire and leave the work force. Unauthorized workers should have access to housing and any other goods and services that they choose to consume. In addition, unauthorized workers who must and do contribute to our tax revenues should benefit from social services to the same extent as similarly situated legal US residents" (Illegal Immigration, 2011).

Illegal immigrants take part in the economic development in the US and they should, therefore, be allowed to access all the facilities that the US citizens access. If these people are not allowed to access them, they may end up leading miserable lives and even end up committing crimes like theft. Assuming that all the illegal immigrants resort to this lifestyle, there will be no security in the regions they preside. This will be a double cost for the government in providing security personnel to enhance security. It will be a root to all evils in the society and may lead to ‘destruction’ of the US ‘image’ (Rosenblum & Haines 368).

In 2007, Rampton, who is a research Director, pointed out the need to provide equal access of social services to all those people living in the US regardless of whether they are legally or illegally there. He said that "...I think it is both unethical and impractical to attempt to deny them [illegal aliens] access to public services. Some public services, such as bus transportation, subways, water utilities, or highways, are so widely used that denying service to illegal aliens would simply be impractical for cost reasons. Denying access to other public services hurts the entire community.

If an illegal alien is raped or robbed, I want that person to have access to police services because otherwise the person who committed that crime is less likely to be captured, which makes everyone -- legal and illegal alike -- less safe. Likewise, denying access to health care increases the risk of disease spreading to the entire community. If someone is living in the United States -- legally or not -- it is in everyone's best interests to do what we can to ensure that they lead healthy and productive lives" (Illegal Immigration, 2011).

When the illegal immigrants are denied access to medical services, it will be a very hard task in trying to stop the spread of infectious diseases among the citizens. There are communicable diseases like tuberculosis, and chickenpox, which are not easily noticed. If they are denied medical attention, these kinds of diseases are likely to spread to a large number of people within a short time. This will increase the government expenses on medical attention to its citizens. Furthermore, there are diseases, which are identified when other infections occur (Kenney 52). It is, therefore, prudent to allow the illegal immigrants to access these services in order to ensure efficient fight against such communicable diseases before other members in the community contact them.

In conclusion, it is important for the government to allow the illegal immigrants to access these facilities because it is for the common good of all the inhabitants. As asserted by several researchers above, allowing them to access these services is not an individual gain. It saves the whole nation on medical expenses for its citizens and improves security. In addition, education provides a better living standard for the illegal immigrants’ children and reduces poverty possibilities in the future generations.