Posted on 04/25/2006 10:57:43 AM PDT by underwiredsupport
Myth vs. Fact
by Thomas R. Eddlem
May 1, 2006
http://www.thenewamerican.com/artman/publish/printer_3745.shtml
Politicians and pundits are defending illegal immigration with worn-out myths that can easily be proven wrong.
Myth: Illegal immigrants contribute greatly to the American economy.
Fact: So-called statistics supporting this myth are typically a deceptive amalgam of statistics and supposition arranged to conceal an undeniable truth. Consider, for instance, this statement from the ACLU paper Immigrants and the Economy (2002): "Immigrants pay more than $90 billion in taxes every year and receive only $5 billion in welfare. Without their contributions to the public treasury, the economy would suffer enormous losses." If 32.5 million immigrants (the total of legal and illegal immigrants, according to the recent U.S. Census figures) really pay $90 billion in taxes, then they pay half the taxes the average native-born American pays. Note too that the ACLU combines both legal and illegal immigrants into its statistic. Most taxes paid by immigrants are paid by legal immigrants. Illegal immigrants often pay little or no taxes because many of them are working "under the table" in the underground, cash-based economy.
Welfare is a term limited to only a few federal subsidy programs, and the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) notes: "Even though illegal aliens make little use of welfare, from which they are generally barred, the costs of illegal immigration in terms of government expenditures for education, criminal justice, and emergency medical care are significant." CIS estimates that the total net cost of illegal immigration is an annual drain on the government of $11-22 billion annually.
Myth: We are a nation of immigrants.
Fact: This myth is false on its face. Nearly 88 percent of the people living in the United States today are not immigrants; they were born here. This is a nation of natives, not a nation of immigrants. "But," the liberal propagandists reply, "we all have ancestors who come from other countries." And, one might reply, so does just about every other nation on Earth.
Are not the French merely descendents of the immigrant barbarian Franks, who drove out the Roman era Celtic Gauls? And the English are simply immigrant Angles and Saxons who virtually wiped out the Celtic Britons in the fifth century A.D. They too are simply nations of immigrants under this liberal myth, as is practically every other nation on Earth. The myth descends to meaninglessness upon any serious analysis. Yet whenever this myth is uttered, we are expected to nod our heads in agreement that a deep and salient point has been made.
Myth: You cannot deport 12 million people.
Fact: This is nothing more than a slogan for people who have stopped trying to address the problem. The U.S. government needs to begin deporting illegal aliens, and even if it only deports a fraction of them over the next few years that would be progress. If the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency deported only two million of the 12 million illegal aliens, 10 million illegals would be better than 12 million.
Congressman Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) notes that enforcing employer sanctions could lead many to go home on their own without deportation proceedings: "If you can't get a job in this country, and if you can't get social service benefits, you go home." Additionally, a lot of immigrants visit families on their own, and wouldn't be able to get back in if Congress decides to secure the border.
On the other hand, if the 12 million illegals are legalized, none would be deported. Moreover, this amnesty (whether called amnesty or not) would simply induce more illegals to cross the Rio Grande in the hopes of waiting until the next amnesty.
Myth: Illegal immigrants are only taking jobs Americans do not want.
Fact: Many illegal immigrants are able to work for less than market value because they don't pay income or Social Security taxes and are able to take their entire paycheck (or cash) home. This is not only unfair competition against employers who follow the law and pay employees "above the table," but it depresses the wage scale for Americans who would otherwise select jobs currently filled by illegal immigrants. These are jobs that Americans "do not want" only because the illegal immigrants have depressed the wage scale for the positions. Take away the illegal immigrants, and the market would raise wages to the level where Americans would take the jobs.
Myth: Guest workers would only be here temporarily.
Fact: History demonstrates that "guest workers" would be as temporary as the "temporary" telephone tax, still in effect, that Congress enacted in 1898 to pay for the Spanish-American War. And what would happen if 12 million "guest workers" decided not to leave? Those who argue against deporting the current 12 million illegal aliens as impractical are likely, if challenged, to say they find the prospect of deporting "guest workers" impractical as well.
Thus, it is hardly surprising that President Bush fails to mention a time limit on the "temporary" worker visas the federal government would permit under the "guest worker" program he is pushing in his public addresses. Most pending congressional legislation would limit the "guest worker" to three years — but what then?
Myth: Illegal immigrants have a right to come here. It is our Christian duty to provide hospitality.
Fact: Nearly two-thirds of the 32.5 million foreign-born people living in the United States entered this country legally, and the United States has more legal immigrants than any other country in the world. That's hardly poor hospitality, and no bill before Congress that has a chance of becoming law would change this nation's hospitality. But it is poor hospitality to say to the nearly 22 million legal U.S. immigrants who waited in line that they wasted their time following the rules because illegal immigrants will now get the same status.
The need to deport illegal aliens and secure our borders has nothing to do with persecuting minorities or lack of hospitality. The United States can continue to allow a large or small number of immigrants into this country legally, depending upon how many can be reasonably assimilated without destroying our American identity. Rather, securing our borders is necessary as a matter of principle — in the interests of equal justice under law — as well as practical security in this age of international terrorism. And this nation can no longer afford to allow "myth-information" slogans to sidetrack the nation from fulfilling the mandate of controlling the borders.
Without a doubt, in every instance, the SSA solution was ti issue new numbers to every single one using that kid's number.
As was said earlier, the ponzi scheme is running out of suckers, so the govt. has to import them from Mexico.
My kids are not anxious to deport millions.
Too bad. Maybe 6 year old Samantha Runyon would still be here.
Like I said. You shouldn't have kids.
I see you're another one who hasn't read the book, but thinks he knows what was written therein. Without knowing what Mr. Welch actually wrote, how can you make such a claim? Are you simply repeating what you read in the New York Times?
Ah, well, we don't need no stinkin' facts.
So should I tell my oldest son who is a Marine not to bother going to Iraq again, that the US is lost to aliens and not worth it?
She wrote those things?
Then she is a kook.
If not, then she's reporting what kooks said and trying to give them gravitas.
It's impossible not to assimilate.
I'm not closiung my eyes to threats, I just don't see the friggin' sky falling like you do.
I'm no minority either...you would marginalize me if you could, but try as you may, common sense prevails over chicken little politics time and again.
And of course we know this, because we have you to tell us. Nonetheless, I think I'll give more credit to what she has to say than you, given that she's probably just a tad more accomplished than you in the political sphere.
If not, then she's reporting what kooks said
She links to the CFR report itself. So they're all a bunch of kooks?
The rioting Muslim youths in France didn't get that memo.
I don't "bat" for illegal aliens, never have, never will, and the fact that all you who have ever accused me of doing that have never once been able to post any comments by me, with an accompanying link, that would prove your accusation is the most telling thing of all.
I don't engage in the sort of name-calling, chicken little scare tactics that you do, nor do I give much weight to the kooks who think that they can "take over" this nation in one way or another.
I don't care whether it's neo Nazis talking about white power, Louis Farrakahn doing the black power calypso, or Phyllis Schafly trying to sell columns by telling you what you want to hear about the nasty ole Mesicans who are going to take over...they all lack the power to do more than talk.
No part of this nation will ever fall to kooks and nutjobs; and it's sad that you have so little faith in her that you believe that it can happen.
I don't serve a cause, but you do...it's as plain as the apple on your posts.
It's been fun, don't let the Mexibugs bite you!
Gotta go.
They're in France.
Did they riot here?
As a matter of fact...those stupid cartoons barely caused a stir here.
This ain't France.
I guess that's a memo YOU missed.
Yes, the influx of people entering the country illegally must be stopped.
But a fence is a band aid.
Take away the reason why the come--jobs--by punishing the people wo give them those jobs--"Any person who . . . encourages or induces an alien to . . . reside . . . knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that such . . . residence is . . . in violation of law, shall be punished as provided . . . for each alien in respect to whom such a violation occurs . . . fined under title 18 . . . imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both." -- Section 274 felonies under the federal Immigration and Nationality Act, INA 274A(a)(1)(A)--and watch the problem go away without us transforming this nation into something she's never been.
Then turn around and manage the flow of guest workers in a manner that benefits the nation, and watch the economics of the issue change for the positive.
Meanwhile, spend energies challenging the current interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment, and not grant automatic US citizen to the children born to anyone other than a citizen, or a permanent legal immigrant and eradicate the anchor baby problem.
Last but not least, reform Social Security, and overthrow Roe v. Wade.
Spending time bitching about the Mexicans is taking focus away from the problem that causes the Mexicans.
You said it was impossible for people not to assimilate. If it's possible somewhere, then it's possible anywhere, given the right conditions. And those conditions are fast approaching in this country as well, much as you want to hide from that fact.
By the way, the Muslim youths in France weren't rioting over the cartoons. They were rioting over "discrimination". Same PC idiocy that's infecting America also.
Lost nearly all respect for JC Watts today when I heard him on the Hannity WABC radio show claiming that "we caaaaaan't deport 11 or 12 million illegal immigrants so we have to find some type of compromise," or something to that effect.
I about barfed.
I had more faith that JC's brain was capable of logic, but now know that is not the case.
If someone (especially a politician) cannot comprehend the simple law of cause and effect, they do not deserve the faith of voters.... and probably should not be in politics in the first place.
After all, the cause and effect principle, besides from being a ubiquitious concept, is behind just about everything our government endeavors to do in the first place.
To solve this problem, we must enact laws and precepts that will cause illegal aliens already here to leave, and those thinking about coming to not make such a rash move in the first place.
We're discussing America, not France.
Whatever they were rioting over is inmaterial to me here in America...where there haven't been any Muslim riots.
You close the borders and attrit them through deportation. The argument that we can't deport 11 million people is garbage. If you close the borders and allow law enforcement and the INS to work together, you can put huge dents in this number over the years. Our only enemy will be the left in this country and legislative bodies like those in Kalifornia.
"I know how things work because I READ."
Here's some more READing material for you Louise - about another gift to the gringos that's being exported from the Marxists south of the border.
"Seemingly overnight, cookie-cutter copies of the mammoth [meth] labs were everywhere.The operators were migrant workers, paid and trained by mysterious benefactors to keep the labs running and their mouths shut.The product entered existing Mexican distribution channels for heroin and cocaine that stretched as far as North Carolina."http://www.house.gov/larsen/meth/press_20041003_oregonian_unnecessaryepidemic.shtml
Gee Louise, looks like some of your "Ants" are bringing their garbage with them - or manufacturing it here.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&safe=off&q=Amezcua+meth
Want more?
ORGANIZED CRIME AND TERRORIST ACTIVITY
IN MEXICO, 1999-2002
"The analyst examined those organized crime syndicates that direct their criminal activities at the United States, namely Mexican narcotics trafficking and human smuggling networks, as well as a range of smaller organizations that specialize in trans-border crime."
Go Ahead, Louise, READ.
"No part of this nation will ever fall to kooks and nutjobs; "
How arrogant and naive. We're number one. We can't be beat. Blah blah blah blah.
Well, Louise, I guess you must have never READ about a former Republic that, before it fell, was called Rome.
What, no History classes in your Junior High School?
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