You mean the illegal aliens, with the wealth they accumulate at $5/hr, go into business and hire others, instead of sending every cent they can to Mexico? 
Posted on 08/21/2005 3:31:38 PM PDT by 4.1O dana super trac pak
ALBERT LEA, Minn. — Illegal immigration is a dagger aimed at the heart of Americans, according to U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., a leader in the fight against illegal immigration.
Republican Congressmen Gil Gutknecht from Minnesota and Tancredo, chairman of the 70-member House Immigration Reform Caucus, spoke to 100 people at a luncheon Tuesday in Albert Lea.
"Please think about national security," Tancredo said. "People are coming across our borders to do very bad things to us."
The topic was based on immigration, whether legal or illegal.
"It has nothing to do with race, ethnicity or country of origin" but everything to do with the problems that stem from it, Tancredo said.
Those include economic, employment and labor issues as well as crime rates, to name a few, he said.
He said illegal immigration wouldn't be such a big problem if the federal government would enforce the law.
"We have national security problems," he said. Not securing America's borders is the most shameful act on the part of the federal government, Tancredo said.
"This issue of massive immigration is a dagger pointing at our heart," he said.
Tancredo said momentum is growing to combat immigration issues, but a "great wall of opposition" remains.
"I want you to ask your local elected officials — I don't care if it's the county commissioners or the governor — ‘What are you going to do about this issue,' " Tancredo said.
A woman in the audience asked Tancredo if he planned to run for president.
"We need you," she said.
Tancredo said he would if the issue doesn't gain attention at the presidential level.
Gutknecht told the crowd that immigration is an issue that deserves national attention, and he provided many statistics and facts about immigration.
His family emigrated from Germany, Gutknecht said, and he fully supports legal immigration. However, "We cannot encourage individuals to break our laws and enter the country illegally.
"Border protection is important to our national security and economy. For more than two centuries, Americans have fought to protect our sovereignty and secure our borders. Sadly, today our borders are a sieve, allowing illegal immigrants to pour into the country," he added.
Gutknecht offered what he called a snapshot of a typical illegal alien: 32 years old with an average education of seven years, an hourly wage of $5.45 and an annual individual income of $8,982.
Other facts he presented:
-- 42 percent of births to immigrants are to illegal alien mothers. In 2005, births to illegal aliens will account for one in 10 births in the United States.
-- Illegal aliens are eligible for emergency Medicaid services and other medical services.
-- More than 29 percent of federal prisoners are aliens.
-- 55 percent of hired farm workers are unauthorized to work in the U.S.
-- In Minnesota, the cost to educate children of illegal aliens was more than $276 million.
"Facts are stubborn things," Gutknecht said.
Ken Dalager traveled to Albert Lea with at least 10 others from Austin concerned about illegal immigration.
"The people that go to the trouble of getting citizenship, I don't think they're much trouble," Dalager said. "The others slip in undercover and just kind of do things how they want to do them."
Conversations grew heated before the congressmen started speaking, however, as people debated the issue during dinner conversation.
"A simple way to stop illegal immigration is to find the companies that hire them," an Austin woman said.
Everybody is an immigrant, Dalager said. His family migrated from Norway, but years ago policies were different, he said.
"My cousin went to country school and the school board went to her house and said she had better talk English before they sent her to school," he said. "Today they're bending over backwards. You've got to hire two teachers," one that speaks English and one that speaks Spanish.
Paul Westrum of Albert Lea believes in "a common- sense approach to our immigration policy."
He was invited to Tuesday's luncheon by Gutknecht.
"If we don't do something about this immigration issue, we're going to lose our country as we know it," said Westrum, who has researched immigration issues for nearly a decade.
Sorry about that, didn't mean to lump you in with A Pole's neo-stalinist gang.
And you are correct, let's look at the results of those "leaders" who believed in the zero sum game(stalin, mao, hitler etc.etc.).
Suppressing wages depends on how fast the economy absorbs that "limitless" supply. The problem with immigration at the moment is not wage suppression with completely unskilled day labor valued at $100/day, but with excessive regulation and tax burdens on business that make it more economical to hire temporary illegals than to hire permanent employees. Increasing the labor supply also creates frictional unemployment, but already immigrant employers are hiring other immigrants, so that takes care of itself over time.
You bring up a very important point. If somehting is not done about illegal immigration, the population of illegals will be so high that they will have the dominant influence on politics. Already, many state and municipal government are capitulating to the demands fromm illegals. Once a critical proprotion of the U.S. population are illigals, a tipping point will be reached where they get to make the laws, not just scream and shout to modify them.
I agree about excessive regulation but thats evading the point. My question is how does a limitless supply of illegal labor 'grow' the economic pie? It doesn't - it HAS to stop at some point.
Some Canadian parents deliberately have their children born in the U.S. and then return to Canada. They want their child to have dual citizenship so the child will have a choice on claiming citizenship when they become adults. In grad school, I met a girl who had TRI-citizenship. Her parents were from Chile, and they had landed immigrant staus in Canada. But her parents travelled to the Soviet Union (they were academics) for some research work and she was born in Moscow. All three contires involved recognized her as a citizen of that country- Canada, Chile and Russia.
The illegal laborers exchange labor for wealth. As their wealth accumulates they employ others and the economy grows.
I like your answer. I, too, am sick of the schtick where the only true Americans are the native Americans. Anyone of European descent is an invader to these whack jobs, even if their family cam across on the Mayflower!
You mean the illegal aliens, with the wealth they accumulate at $5/hr, go into business and hire others, instead of sending every cent they can to Mexico?
If you're talking about the laborers - they send most of their wealth south of the border.
If your referring to their employers - they are apparently pocketing the wealth, thus the steady march of inflation during the current illegal immigrant boom.
Well, it's not perfect, but those illegals spend money here too, mostly buying stuff at the flea markets I go to. Those vendors spend that money. They buy drinks, food and gas along the way. How is this not part of the economy?
I'm not sure how much of their wealth they send south, $10 billion is the figure I have heard. That's about $800 from each of 13 million illegals not counting money sent by legals. I don't think that's a lot.
Are you kidding? Its second only to oil money as Mexico's single largest source of revenue.
At $100 / day for illegal labor, it's not a lot. Some of my friends hire illegals which I strongly disagree with, but they have no choice because their business depends on a flexible supply of labor. Regulations and taxes would kill the business if they hired legally. So at $100 / day, that's 8 days of untaxed wages sent to Mexico. That's not a lot.
Upon reaching this amount, money sent by fellow countrymen living abroad will become the main source of Mexico’s foreign exchange, over and above revenue from crude oil exports that is expected to be slightly more than US$16.665 billion in 2004, and far more than income from visiting international tourists who will spend US$10 billion.
And buying coffee, hot dogs, and beer at 7-11(where they pay sales tax).
Ruh roh, 7-11 is based in Texas and part of the GW Bush cabal. Time to close down all the 7-11's.
Like I've said before, these immigration threads are like entering the looking glass sometimes(akin to DU).
You'll forgive this Californian for not appreciating the benefit these folks bring to the economy.
Clearly illegal labor expands the economy. Now we need to fix the problem of labor overregulation and welfare for illegals so that real Americans get their fair shake. I also tend to be a monoculturalist so I think a decrease in immigration would help right now. But it is just wrong to say their labor does nothing to increase the economy.
Yes, welfare for illegals is a problem, but it's caused by stupid liberals.
I'm still waiting for proof of this assertion.
$100 /day minus the $1500 / year sent back to Mexico.
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