Posted on 01/07/2004 7:45:17 PM PST by Remember_Salamis
Has anybody started an email/letter writing campaign in response to the president's proposed immigration initiative?
We need to show the president that he can't take advantage of his conservative base.
Oh yes?
How so pray tell?
Do you expect the newly documented illegal aliens will begin charging more for lawn service?
Raise their fee for cleaning a four bedroom, two and a half bath homes?
Negotiate higher remuneration for nanny services?
Elevate the median salary for housekeeping attendants in the hospitality industry?
Jack up the picker's payroll for papaya farmers?
If I went back in time to 100 years ago during the last large influx of immigration,( a period when my own Grand parents came here in 1925 to do those low pay jobs that no body wanted) I would see precisely the same fearful commentary as I see now.
We fail again to use history as a guide. We were made stronger as a result then and I see no reason to think differently now.
The legality or illegality not withstanding.
Hi!!!!!
Here's a picture of the AFP's darling, Charles Lindbergh, receiving the German Eagle, Nazi Germany's highest honor bestowed upon a citizen, from none other than Hermann Goering, and by direct order from Der Fuhrer himself.
Absolutely.
I was not attempting to minimize the millions who have come here and followed the law.
The facts are, that the penalty for not doing so is a three year prohibition against filing for a green card.
Logically speaking, the penalty is being applied with the three year work permit.
We are not giving away the store entirely by doing this and it makes a great deal of sense since the other options are just politically and logistically very difficult, if not impossible.
The largest effect will come from the identification of the employers who are evading taxes and probably mistreating these folks.
One needs to include this as a huge economic benefit for the country and tax enforcement.
Secondly, many of these folks will not qualify for various reasons and there will now be much more political and legal cover for a lot of deportations.
A fair question that deserves a fair answer, despite the sarcastic continuation.
Illegal aliens' labor is directly subsidized by tax dollars for social services - for housing, for medical care, for schools and a host of other services. It's not like they just work here and pay their way, as in the 1900s immigration waves.
By keeping them here, legalizing them and importing more, Bush's plan will increase the burden of taxes that support the welfare industry. The poor don't pay those taxes, the middle class does.
Not when they are employed, to any large degree.
Most are very proud and don't take as much as these numbers that get thrown around indicate.
Also, these numbers do not include the contributions through taxes for goods, services and property taxes through rent.
The numbers on both sides of the issue are stretched and the answer lies in the middle.
The proposal calls for steady employment to qualify. That one statement should defeat most economic fears. With employment requirements the numbers are just wrong. New estimates need to be done, and if/when they are the pucker factor should be eliminated to a great degree if not entirely.
Fable.
Studies generated by think tanks from the Cato Institute, to The National Center For Policy Analysis all agree that immigrants, legal or illegal, have a net positive impact on the economy, and your red herring of the cost to taxpayers of social services rendered to immigrants, is more than balanced by the reduced costs in goods and services to US consumers that come from the lower costs of immigrant labor to American industries.
The American middle class draws large financial benefits from the presence of immigrants.
Here's substantiation for my claim:
"A 1995 Cato Institute study found that illegal immigrants paid approximately 46 percent as much in taxes as American-born citizens, but they received only 38 percent as much from the government. Also, contrary to popular belief, the majority of illegal immigrants were not destitute fence-jumpers but were middle-class tourists or students who overstayed their visas."
"In most respects, immigrants benefit the economy. Today's immigrants appear to be just as entrepreneurial as immigrants of the past. The Alexis de Tocqueville Institute found that the number of Hispanic-owned businesses in Los Angeles County increased 700 percent from 1972-1992 as the Hispanic population increased 200 percent. Stanford University economist Clark Reynolds has stated that if the U.S. economy is to grow at a rate of 3 percent a year, we must find between 5 million and 15 million more workers than can be supplied domestically. Without immigration, the boom times of the 1990s might not have been possible and might not return." --Source
Do you really believe that a guy making the kind of wages paid to unskilled laborers can support a family without some kind of assistance? No public housing, no food stamps, no free medical care, no free daycare, no anything?
If so, I need to take some home economics lessons from guest workers, for sure.
Nor do the anti-immigration fanatics ever mention the lower costs of goods and services facilitated by the lower wages earned by immigrants.
Go ahead and triple or maybe even quadruple the wage of a lettuce picker in order to make the job attractive to Americans, and watch the cost of lettuce rise beyond belief.
Then proportionately, the cost of that dinner salad that you get with your entree at TGI Friday's goes up, which means that the operator's cost goes up, which means that he'll have to charge more for the dinner, which means that your taxes on that meal go up, as does the amount of your tip to the waiter.
Luis, there are many other studies and articles which disagree. Google shows about 305,000 hits on this subject. Here is just one.
ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION COSTS TO AMERICAN CITIZENS
By Frosty Wooldridge
Dec 5, 2003, 13:45
Each day American citizens go to work, they are taxed by their local, state and federal government. Those taxes maintain a functioning society. They provide for the common health, welfare and defense of this nation. The average American must work from January 1st to May 5th to pay their taxes. That means they work for four months to maintain this society. The rest of the year, they work for their families and personal needs.
However, that has changed in the past ten years with an excess of 10 million people from foreign countries having crossed into the United States illegally. Their growing numbers of over 2,200 per day are creating a national crisis for every American family. In 2003, and estimated 800,000 to 1,000,000 people crossed illegally into the United States. That number is expected to exceed one million in 2004.
What are the costs? For the average American-extreme and growing. Why? Because illegal aliens work under the table without paying taxes. Who benefits? A few employers. Who loses? You do. Why? According to Harvard Professor George Borjas, immigration costs American workers $133 billion annually in wage depression and job loss. In the past ten years, 2.3 million low skill American workers were displaced from their jobs due to the heavy influx of foreign workers. Taxpayers paid $15 billion in public assistance, Medicaid, food stamps and unemployment compensation to Americans who had lost their jobs to illegal immigrants.
In the past two years alone, the U.S. economy lost three million jobs and unemployment rose to 6.4 percent. Yet the illegal immigration pipeline keeps pumping into communities across America. Even more sobering, immigrant households consume $20 billion more in public services than they pay in taxes. Even more frightening, illegal immigrants as well as legal immigrants send $55.5 billion dollars back to their home countries--$14.5 to Mexico, $25 billion to South America and $16 billion to Asia-thus draining currency out of America.
Each year, immigration takes $68 billion dollars out of your pocket. They cost $7.4 billion to teach their children English as a second language. California, with three million illegals, pays $2.2 billion annually to educate illegal alien children. They are $38 billion in debt. Texas is $12 billion in debt with 1.5 million illegal aliens that cost them $1.03 billion annually. What is it in your state? The USA is $6.8 trillion in debt. How long can your family and your country maintain this financial nightmare?
Currently, illegal and legal immigrants make up 25% of the U.S. prison population at an annual cost of $1 billion. That's just the ones that are caught. Last summer, eight illegals raped eight Boulder, Colorado women and fled to Mexico. One killed an LA police officer and fled over the border. Gangs and drugs run over the Mexican border costing American citizens millions in rehabilitation for addicts.
An even greater dilemma crossing over our borders are the diseases riding in the bodies of illegal aliens who avoid health screening. An incurable strain of tuberculosis, once endemic only to Mexico, is now riding in the bodies of 16,000 people who crossed over in the past four years. Over 7,000 new cases of leprosy have crossed over in the past three years. Included in this growing crisis are Exotic New Castle Disease, Dengue Fever, Chagas Disease and worse. In excess of 100,000 cases of hepatitis have been discovered, but the price has not been added up at this time. The cost to every American citizen grows by the day as over 2.3 million legal and illegal immigrants cross America's borders annually.
Unfortunately, they come from countries without family planning, which makes the line endless and growing. You might ask yourself, "What is all this immigration doing for my family? Am I better off? How am I benefiting? Is there something going on that I've missed? What about my job and my community?"
Every citizen has a stake in the outcome of this crisis. If not now, then later, for your children. You ask, "Why, in fact, are our elected officials giving illegal aliens driver's licenses, instate tuition, free schooling, medical care and more? Why are they helping illegal alien migration by not securing America's borders since 9/11? What good are our laws if our own federal officials won't enforce them?"
The reason is simple: Not enough people have spoken up. The worst decision you can make is to think you can do so little that you do nothing at all. If you do nothing, illegal aliens WILL keep crossing our borders. It will get worse. It's up to you to start writing letters to the editor, speaking up on radio talk shows, calling your senators and congressmen/women daily, calling federal officials, make noise, be heard and join action groups. The Boston Tea Party was one of the great events that started this nation. One of your great, great, great grandparents most likely heaved a few bags of tea overboard. What are you going to do?
Watch, wait or take action?
It's your country, your kids and your future.
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Sources: Center for Immigration Studies, Washington, DC. Federation of American Immigration Reform, Dr. Don Huddle of Rice University, San Diego Union Tribune, Harvard University, National Academy of Sciences
It seems everything is in order. ;^)
You expect me to believe Cato has no political axe to grind? They're neutral ? As a card-carrying Libertarian, I'm ROTFLMAO !
Of course, if your point of view is true, why doesn't Bush just add a requirement that using any kind of public assistance will cause immediate deportation?
Hint: don't hold your breath.
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