National
The New Media Alliance, Inc. has undertaken a new initiative to cut through the demagoguery, one sided reporting and misinformation that is being bandied about on a myriad of important issues facing Americans today. A key component of this effort is the creation and dissemination of NMA Factsheets. NMA Factsheets are intended to provide a clear, easy to digest, objective presenation of verifiable facts and analysis that better inform todays debates. The first NMA Factsheet addresses the issue of illegal immigration; However a number of additional Factsheets will be forthcoming over the next few weeks and months. Claim: �Illegal immigrants do the jobs that Americans won�t.� False: Americans will perform any legal job necessary to support themselves and their families. As an illustration, recently 70 US citizens were dismissed from an Alabama construction site by a foreman who said the dismissal was �because the Mexicans had arrived�. Linda Swopes, who operates Complete Employment Services in Mobile AL said: �I assure you it is not true that Americans don't want to work. We had been told that 270 jobs might be available, and we could have filled every one of them with men from this area, most of whom lost their jobs because of the hurricane.� The identified Mexican illegal immigrant workers were simply willing to work for less money than were US citizens. www.washtimes.com/national/20060410-123506-1297r.htm Claim: �Illegal immigrants help the American economy.� False: Illegal immigrants to the US cost the country at least $10 billion more than they contribute to the economy. The CIS (Center for Immigration Studies) advises that if amnesty is put into place, these costs to the American economy (and the American taxpayer) will triple. The average illegal immigrant family uses $2,700/year more in services than it pays in taxes. In 2002, this amounted to a $10.4 billion drain on the federal budget. Some of the greatest federal costs included: Medicaid ($2.5 billion); treatment for the uninsured ($2.2 billion); food assistance programs ($1.9 billion); the federal prison and court systems ($1.6 billion); and federal aid to schools ($1.4 billion). www.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscalrelease.html Claim: �Illegal immigrants are just hard-working people who want jobs.� False: The US Justice Department reported that in 2003, alone, 270,000 illegal immigrants had served prison time. The Federation for American Immigration Reform reports: �In March 2000, Congress made public Department of Justice statistics showing that, over the previous five years, the INS had released over 35,000 criminal aliens instead of deporting them. Over 11,000 of those released went on to commit serious crimes, over 1,800 of which were violent ones; including 98 homicides, 142 sexual assaults, and 44 kidnappings. In 2001, thanks to a decision by the Supreme Court, the INS was forced to release into our society over 3,000 criminal aliens who collectively had been convicted of 125 homicides, 387 sex offenses, and 772 assault charges.� The Federal Bureau of Prisons estimates that fully one-third of current prison populations are comprised of non-citizen illegals. Islamic terrorists, including Mexicans with terrorist ties, have entered and are continuing to enter the US via our unsecured borders. The violent MS-13 Salvadoran gangs have illegally immigrated across the US-Mexico border. MS-13 has also vowed to kill local police, Border Patrol agents and US citizen-members of the Minutemen project, within the US. www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/3/27/114208.shtml?s=ic
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www.washtimes.com/national/20050328-125306-7868r.htm Claim: �Illegal aliens help keep cost of goods down� Misleading and false: Although marketplace agricultural products are estimated to be somewhat lower than they would be if US citizens were performing the jobs illegals carry out, the cost to US taxpayers in free services to illegals vastly outweighs any savings to the US consumer. And illegal immigrants are no longer solely operating in agriculture but, have expanded out into multiple industries. In Los Angeles, 49-year old construction worker Michael Williams (jobless for 3 months) said outside of a Home Depot: �You have a lot of illegal aliens here. It takes food off the table.� The spread of illegals into other industries is increasing geometrically. www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2006-04-10-immigrants-economic-impact_x.htm Claim: �Illegal immigrants are being denied [their] civil rights� False: Civil rights pertain ONLY to citizens. The Merriam-Webster online Dictionary defines civil-rights as: �The nonpolitical rights of a citizen; especially: the rights of personal liberty guaranteed to U.S. citizens by the 13th and 14th amendments to the Constitution and by acts of Congress.� If one is not a citizen of the country, civil rights do not apply. www.m-w.com/dictionary/civil%20rights Claim: �Illegal immigrants are law-abiding citizens� False: First and foremost, by the very nature of illegal immigrants being in the country �illegally�, they are neither following nor abiding by US law. Also, illegal immigrants are increasingly using bogus or stolen Social Security numbers. The crime of Identity Fraud being affected by illegal immigrants has become a growing and sever problem. Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-AZ) commented: �If the government bothered to look, it could find abundant evidence of illegal aliens gaming our system and the unscrupulous employers who are aiding and abetting them.� www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/nation/14411281.htm Claim: �Illegal immigrants only want to become US citizens� False: Although many illegals are demanding US citizenship, and to be given special consideration ahead of those who have applied legally, a marked number of Hispanics do not want it. But, they do demand the �same rights� as US citizens. Many Hispanic groups, including (but not limited to) MEChA, the Mexica Movement and LULAC, are supporting and working toward the re-conquest (�reconquista�) of the United States. These groups are, also, becoming increasingly militant. http://tinyurl.com/jbtla www.washingtontimes.com/national/20060416-122222-1672r.htm Claim: �Illegal aliens are honest and contribute little to crime� Misleading: Many are hard working. However, in Los Angeles, alone, 95 percent of all outstanding warrants for homicide (which total 1,200 to 1,500) target illegal aliens. Up to two-thirds of all fugitive felony warrants (17,000) are for illegal aliens. �A confidential California Department of Justice study reported in 1995 that 60 percent of the 20,000-strong 18th Street Gang in southern California is illegal.� www.city-journal.org/html/14_1_the_illegal_alien.html Claim: �The claim that illegal immigrants drain US services is a myth� False: From the L.A. Times and Rice University�s Professor Donald Huddle: �Less than 2% of illegal aliens are picking our crops but 29% are on welfare.� And as far back as 1997, according to Huddle, the cost of illegal immigration to the American taxpayer was a net (after subtracting taxes immigrants pay) $69 Billion. www.freedomalliance.org/view_article.php?a_id=642 Claim: �Illegals do not drive down US workers� wages� False: As already presented, illegal immigrants from Mexico are working for far less money than US citizen workers and on a regular basis. An 18 April 2006 article in WSJ by Professor of Economics and Social Policy at Harvard University George J. Borjas (�For a Few Dollars Less�) quotes Paul Samuelson: ��an increase in supply [of workers] will, other things being equal, tend to depress wage rates." Although Samuelson�s conclusions were, for years, disputed, recently they have been proving to be accurate. Borjas writes: �My Harvard colleague Lawrence Katz and I recently examined the impact of the 1980-2000 immigrant influx (and particularly Mexican-origin immigration) for U.S. wages. The results are that, in the short run -- holding all other things equal -- immigration lowered the wage of native workers, particularly of those workers with the least education. The wage fell by 3% for the average worker and by 8% for high school dropouts.� He further concludes: �These effects imply sizable reductions in annual earnings for low-skill workers. In 2000, the typical high school dropout earned $25,000, so that immigration reduced his earnings by $1,200, even after all capital adjustments take place. Mr. Katz and I also examined how much was due to Mexican immigration. We calculated what the wage effects would have been had there been no Mexican immigration between 1980 and 2000. We found that Mexican immigration, which is predominantly low-skill, accounts for all of the adverse impact of immigration on low-skill natives.� In NRO (National Review Online), Borjas continues with: �In fact, immigration may have depressed the wages of low-skilled workers by 5 to 8 percentage points.� Note: WSJ article is via �subscription only�. www.nationalreview.com/issue/borgas200604250622.asp |
