I agree with most of what Keyes has to say here. Most of the arguments you see elsewhere focus on how American business is benefiting and exploiting these people, and how they are a drain on public resources. I have not seen this other argument -- that these people are here for their own benefit with no intention or desire to become citizens.
Keyes seems to favor legal immigration and citizenship, however, even of the unskilled and uneducated. He says this is good in that it will prevent "taxation without representation". I disagree with this. Increasing the class of legal workers that are unskilled will still depress wages and result in no taxes being paid.
As the progressive income tax brackets ratchet to higher income levels each year, this means that more and more people will fall off the income-tax rolls. This is the opposite of "taxation without representation" -- it is, in effect, "representation without taxation". Increasing the number of voters that do not pay for larger government is a recipe for disaster.
Keyes has in the past supported a NRST, but doesn't mention it in this article. That is disappointing, because I think it is a critical piece to the illegal immigration problem. Even with the NRST replacing income taxes, however, adding to the pool of legal low-wage unskilled labor has the same problem. These people would still consume public services and vote, but they would not pay any net taxes because they'd be eligible for the FCA. We would still have "representation without taxation."
We need mechanization to replace the manual labor that is currently being done by illegal aliens, not more legal aliens or even citizens performing low-wage manual labor. Legal immigration should be limited to people capable of performing skilled work. Retaining the manual labor jobs just lowers the standard of living for all Americans.
In any case, you can be assured that Dr. Keyes still very much supports the FairTax.
As Rush put it, when the minority that don't pay taxes becomes the majority, it's all over.
I think you shouldn't be able to vote if you don't pay Federal Income Tax. There's a word for Representation without Taxation -- Tyranny.
I still can't support the NRST because if the Income tax is not completely abolished to go along with it, we just wind up with a new tax.