Argument:

“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.”


Response:

The author of the argument advocates the notion that the autonomy of a country rests on the strength of its borders since that would check and restrain the immigrants entering into a country. However, his argument has numerous assumptions, of which, some are blatantly obvious and others which, are hidden. These claims need to be addressed and substantiated in order enforce his stance on the subject.

Primarily, to begin with, the author's assertion about the borders influencing the number of illegal immigrants makes it seem like immigrants enter a country only through its national borders but in reality this is not quite true. Illegal immigrants can very well get into a country through sea routes that are often not guarded fiercely. When Taj terrorist attack in Mumbai took place, the main convicts had entered the country in boats via the ocean. We could also consider the case where people overstay their legal period of stay in a country and thus they become illegal immigrants as well. The border has no influence in the scenarios mentioned in these cases.

Furthermore, the author asserts that illegal immigrants pose a threat to a nation's economy and its national identity. This generalization made by the author could have ensued because of certain select circumstances that he/she might have observed. But even if it's true since no evidence has been provided to bolster this claim it would continue to remain just that, a claim. If the argument needs to be accepted the author needs to present more concrete facts and statistics that support his position.

And moreover, the argument asks for efforts to be put in to return these illegal immigrants to their respective countries. This proposal is entirely based on the assumption that the threat posed by these illegal immigrants is dangerous enough to warrant the time and energy that the government would need to put in to send them back home. Therefore, supporting argument needs to be presented by the author to uphold this assumption that has been made.

To conclude, even though the argument supposedly asserts that illegal immigrants pose a threat to a given nation, further evidences in the form of facts and figures need to be presented to strengthen the multiple assumptions used in this argument. Only after these issues are attended to, can this argument warrant an enforcement.