Hi everyone,
I have tried to write this essay within the time constraints without referring to any other essays on the similar topic but following a particular template. I have my GRE in 5 days. (Princeton Review rated it a 4) Kindly point out the areas in which I lack and how I can improvise. Thank You.

Argument Essay :

The following argument was made in a newspaper editorial:
“The autonomy of any country is based on the strength of its borders; if the number of illegal immigrants entering a country cannot be checked, both its economy and national identity are endangered. Because illegal immigrants pose such threats, every effort must be made to return them to their country of origin.”

Write a response in which you examine the stated and/or unstated assumptions of the argument. Be sure to explain how the argument depends on these assumptions and what the implications are for the argument if the assumptions prove unwarranted.

Response:

Since illegal immigrants pose certain threats, they must be made to return them to their country of origin- states the claim. Stated in this way, the argument fails to mention several key factors, on the basis of which it could be evaluated. To justify this conclusion author reasons that since the autonomy of any country is directly related to the strength of its borders; illegal immigrants if not kept in check can cause threat to nation's identity and economy. However, careful scrutiny of the evidence reveals that it provides little credible support for author's recommendation.

Firstly, the author assumes that the autonomy of the country is solely dependent on the strength of it's border. It doesn't consider other crucial factors such as the government running the nation and the policies followed. If the government of the nation, say X, was weak and itself depended for scrutiny of crucial decisions from another nation, say Y; then X's borders would hardly be a threat to it's autonomy as compared to the X's dependency on Y . Had the author stated up to what extent the strength of the nation's borders affected the autonomy, it would have been a strong evidence to justify the conclusion.

Secondly, the argument readily claims that immigrants pose a threat to the economy of the country. On what basis, can the author justify this assumption? Consider the example of the states in southern U.S. These states have a notable number of immigrants from Mexico. These immigrants have taken up jobs of janitors, clerks and many other small scale jobs, which in one way do contribute towards the economy of the country itself, rather than the other way around. If the author would have provided significant proof that these immigrants, did in-fact endanger the economy, in form of a calculated survey or some other means which pointed out the loses that the nation faced due to them, would it have bolstered the argument.

The final portion of the author's argument is the conclusion. The conclusion states that the because of disadvantages mentioned earlier all illegal immigrants must be returned to their country of origin. Although this statement might appear to be a logical conclusion of this extreme argument it fails to take extra information into account. The author doesn't give any indication on how extreme these problems will be or how costly it will be to return the amount of illegal aliens to their home country. What if the cost to the economy was half the amount that it would cost to send all of the immigrants back to their country of origin? The author could use some monetary figures to prove that some savings would be incurred if all illegal immigrants were deported.

In conclusion, the author’s argument is unpersuasive as it stands. To bolster it further, the author must provide concrete evidence, perhaps by way of a survey or one of the above mentioned means. Finally, if the author included these items instead of solely explaining the effect of illegal immigration on the autonomy and national identity of a country the argument would have been more through and convincing.