You build a wall, we tear it down!
Send them home!
No issue is more hotly contested today then immigration
with restrictionists calling for the deportation of all illegals
and a 50% cut in legal immigration.
Here are the 5 strongest arguments against immigration
and why they're wrong.
So with immigration, you better be smart and you better be tough,
and they're taking your jobs and you better be careful.
So which is it President Trump?
Do we have record low unemployment or are immigrants stealing all the jobs.
The worst case estimates are that low skill immigrants
reduce the wages of high school drop outs by less than 5%.
That's not nothing, but immigrants make things cheaper for all Americans
by doing jobs such as picking fruit or cleaning up on construction sites.
The money saved can be devoted to other productive uses,
which also creates jobs.
In the developed world there is no correlation between unemployment and immigration rights
Immigrants go to hot economies and they leave when the jobs dry up.
Why would you want to bring a people
who are immediately dependent on welfare when they get here?
Don't you want people who add something immediately to your country?
Since the late 90s, most legal immigrants
and all illegals are barred from receiving most forms of welfare.
The only real taxpayer funded services most immigrants use
are emergency medical treatments that account for less than 2% of all health care spending
and K-12 education for their children who are often US citizens.
Immigrants that do qualify for programs such as medicaid food stamps
or supplemental social security,
use these programs at lower rates than native born Americans or naturalized citizens.
Legal immigrant men also have a higher labor force participation rate than natives.
And illegals are even more likely to be working than legal immigrants.
They're here illegally, they're not paying taxes, okay?
I've heard this one before too, I hear them all.
Legal immigrants pay the exact same taxes as all Americans.
Illegals pay the exact same sales and property taxes and between half and two thirds
also end up paying payroll and income taxes
because they use fake social security cards and other documents to get hired.
And if we want unauthorized immigrants to contribute more in taxes,
the best way to accomplish that is to change their legal status.
What I would suggest they do is that they go back to their home country,
get in line with the hundreds of thousands of people from their home country
who are trying to do it legally.
For many immigrants, especially for Mexico, there really is no line.
In 2010, for instance, just 65 thousand visas were given to Mexicans
with the overwhelming majority going to close family members such as spouses and minor children.
The wait list had 1.4 million people on it,
effectively meaning there is no change of ever getting in.
Long wait lists also exist for the Philippines, China, India and other countries
and for all the fear of what restrictionists call 'chain migration'
family reunification consists almost exclusively
of US citizens bringing their spouses and unmarried minor children to live here.
The backlogs for most countries means that this can take between 15 and 25 years.
If you start to bring your sister over when she's 25, you'll be lucky to welcome her
by the time she turns 40.
You should not import people numerous enough to influence your society,
change it's laws and destroy your culture.
Exactly the same complaints were made
about newcomers like the Irish, the Jews and the Italians.
Yet about one third of Mexican immigrants marry outside their ethnicity or race,
which is the same percentage as it was a quarter century ago.
Successive generations also see massive gains in household income
and home ownership rates.
And when it comes to learning English,
all signs are that Hispanics are more likely to speak English at home than years past.
By the third generation English is the dominant language in three quarters of Hispanic homes.
Which is the same rate of language shift seen in earlier waves of immigration.
The bottom line is that when it comes to immigration
the instincts of the American people are correct.
Immigrants help the economy and newcomers make the land of opportunity
a better place to live.