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.
Exactly the same question I've been asking of Dane for a while now.
Care to respond, Dane?
What will be done when all of those refuse to leave?
If we can't deport them now, what will we do when their time is up?
Got an answer, Dane?
"....He shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed."
The people who think Eisenhower was a communist.
How do you deport 12 million illegals when for everyone you deport three sneak back in?
I'm so tired of the whiny, pathetic excuses coming from all levels of government. It doesn't help that the president was repeating this yesterday in his speech. We "can't"???? Since when? We *used* to be the most powerful nation on earth. Can't was not in the vocabulary. We put people in space, we invented the telephone, the Internet. We have the most powerful military and every kind of advanced technology one could think of, but we "cannot deport xx million."
"Agreed, our borders should have been secured years ago. Years and years before Bush was even born.
How do you suggest we remove the illegals? "
It will take many actions, but the first and foremost is to crack down on those who employ illegal aliens and to upgrade social security documentation so that it is much more difficult to use social security numbers fradulently.
And the fact that other Presidents didn't do their job is no excuse for Bush not to.
How could an illegal alien pay into SS when you have to be a citizen or legally authorized alien to do so? ( How do I replace a lost Social Security card?)
We don't need to deport 12 million, just start deporting one or two thousand a month with well publicized confiscation and auction of their personal and real property. While simultaneously opening up documentation and processing centers in Mexico for guest workers.
The big exodus home would begin almost overnight. It just takes political courage.
I think the legal immigration quotas are too low and need to be doubled, maybe tripled. They wouldn't be up here if they couldn't find work and most would prefer to be documented and legal.
However, they need to go home and let us sort and tag them before they re-enter.
Exactly.
The US Govt. is very big into making examples of people to induce compliance in the remainder of the population.
For them to sit idlely by and do nothing in this instance says (very loudly) that they're encouraging this illegal alien invasion.
And those who allowed this illegal alien situation to get to this point, should be stoned as well.
Of course. The biggest myth of all is that the problem is just so intractable. The reality is that we've never really made more than a laughable effort to tackle it. So yes, aggressively deport, and get the border under control. Also, the states need to be given full power to take action against illegals as they see fit (deportation, prosecution, whatever), without having to wait for the feds to do something.
"We *used* to be the most powerful nation on earth. Can't was not in the vocabulary."
bingo. We're a "can do" nation except when it comes to immigration enforcement.
Politicians like Bush need to stop saying he can't do this and that. He needs to be honest and say he DOESNT WANT TO do them.
As you said, "pathetic excuses."
"One child's Social Security number was used 742 times by workers in 42 states."
WOW!
You're a big fan of the Bush's so-called "Guest Worker" plan.
How do we get them to go home once their time has expired?
If we can't deport them now, how will we deport them then?
"The biggest myth of all is that the problem is just so intractable. "
bingo.
The only thing that's intractable about it is that it would take just a wee bit of political courage.
That's why it's intractable. Because there isn't any of that in Washington.
If only to keep our enemies from believing we are so weak kneed.
Thaaat's right, give all previous Presidents a pass and lynch GWB for their failings.
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