The hidden costs of immigration

[stjames1_53]

You are Canadian, right? Canada is pretty strict about immigration and even stricter with illegal immigration. Stricter than we are. I think if you had Mexico on your southern border you might be singing a different tune.

this is as spot on as one can get.................

[DGUtley]

America is a land of immigrants. You are all products of immigration. It's amazing to watch people complain about it.

@Common_Sense My relatives came from Italy LEGALLY the week before the Titanic. Your country stops me at the border and checks my papers. Why do you twist our concern for illegal immigration with a hatred for all immigrants? We are a country of laws, not men.

[rcfieldz]

The big deal now is the cost of lives to family and friends. That has become the number one "Costs Of Immigration" ​for this administration.

[Common]

@Common_Sense My relatives came from Italy LEGALLY the week before the Titanic. Your country stops me at the border and checks my papers. Why do you twist our concern for illegal immigration with a hatred for all immigrants? We are a country of laws, not men.

Same for me, my parents my relatives came from italy, they went through HELL for days waiting to be processed at ellis island. There was NO FREE health care, no free ANYTHING, no phone calls in Italian, no paperwork in Italian, if you couldnt speak read and write english, you didnt get citizenship, you didnt get a drivers license YOU GOT NOTHING.

DG heres the truth, most of the left does not want illegal immigration out of the goodness of their heart the same way they arent concerned about blacks except for VOTING POWER and to use them as the means to get their want. Illegal immigration is about democrat votes, they cant get elected on americans alone and they know it. Just look how theyve been devestated across the country. They are willing to destroy the country financially for their own gain.

[Peter1469]

See my post above on Ellis Island. A lot of people were rejected- the standards were more strict than today.

[Scrounger]

It is impossible to reason with the anti-immigrant lobby, but for chits and giggles, let us once again produce the facts:

America operates in a free market economy (at some level.) When I started writing and speaking out about "illegal immigration," I already had close to a decade of experience studying the subject and working with the existing think tanks at the time. And so, I help ghost write two articles in Newswatch Magazine(1986.)

At that time immigration officials said there were an estimated 10 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. with an additional two million more entering annually. Using that kind of fear mongering math, we should have somewhere closer to 60 million undocumented foreigners (a little less since a percentage would die over those thirty one years.) Instead, we have about the same number we had over thirty years ago.

It seems to me that the anti-immigrant lobby is not to keen on facts nor accounting, so let's straighten them out a bit. Contrary to popular belief, undocumented foreigners are prohibited from getting welfare, food stamps, Social Security, etc. The only exceptions are:

• Emergency medical care (which includes emergency labor and delivery)
• Emergency disaster relief that is provided for the short term and is not a cash payment
• Limited immunizations and testing, and treatment of symptoms of communicable diseases
• Certain community programs, such as soup kitchens or crisis counseling, as specified by the Attorney General
• Limited housing or community development assistance to those already receiving it in 1996

Most of the aid the undocumented do receive was mostly for the benefit of Americans (i.e. immunizations) and emergency medical care for pregnant women. BTW, their so - called "anchor babies" are U.S. citizens by virtue of the illegally ratified 14th Amendment (a topic the anti-immigrant lobby avoids like the plague.)

The only part the anti-immigrant lobby understands is that the undocumented can work for less in wages. The reality is, Americans can't work for less in wages because they pay more in taxes. They pay more in taxes because they demand a bigger and more intrusive government each year. Even in this joke of a debate, the anti-immigrant lobby has created TRILLIONS of dollars in tax debt; cost us constitutional Liberties; they have gutted the Constitution... and they still complain about this issue. NOTHING they have done in more than a decade and a half has brought them any relief. The anti-immigrant lobby does not understand the economics of their own country and they need a fresh look at the issue and a new set of real solutions.

[Peter1469]

We don't need large numbers of people to immigrate to the US. Not sure how that concept is hard to understand.

[Scrounger]

Seventy five percent of the undocumented workers obtain a Taxpayer Identification Number and pay the same taxes as the so - called "legal citizen." The anti-immigrant lobby gets their boxers in a bunch and claims that "yeah, but they get it back at the end of the year."

That's a lot of speculation, but if you forced undocumented workers to become citizens, they would have access to Social(ist) Security, welfare, etc. So, what are the anti-immigrants really trying to accomplish? What is really with this unhealthy obsession about forcing people to become citizens in order to participate in the free market?

The anti-immigrant lobby seems oblivious to the jobs created by the undocumented workforce - jobs that would not exist if they were forced to be citizens. They seem oblivious to the fact that once they force those people to become citizens, those people will vote the undocumented foreigners into the pages of history. BTW, did you ever wonder what Trump's vague reference to a "big beautiful door" is really about?

[stjames1_53]

Seventy five percent of the undocumented workers obtain a Taxpayer Identification Number and pay the same taxes as the so - called "legal citizen." The anti-immigrant lobby gets their boxers in a bunch and claims that "yeah, but they get it back at the end of the year."

That's a lot of speculation, but if you forced undocumented workers to become citizens, they would have access to Social(ist) Security, welfare, etc. So, what are the anti-immigrants really trying to accomplish? What is really with this unhealthy obsession about forcing people to become citizens in order to participate in the free market?

The anti-immigrant lobby seems oblivious to the jobs created by the undocumented workforce - jobs that would not exist if they were forced to be citizens. They seem oblivious to the fact that once they force those people to become citizens, those people will vote the undocumented foreigners into the pages of history. BTW, did you ever wonder what Trump's vague reference to a "big beautiful door" is really about?

the illegals pull 134 billion out of the country tax base, they only contribute a billion+/-..............I'd say they were a drain.

[Scrounger]

We don't need large numbers of people to immigrate to the US. Not sure how that concept is hard to understand.

That is where the free market gets to decide.

What you're inadvertently proposing is the same excuse for a solution that got us into this situation.

For instance, back in the 1970s, when we had those issues pop up about affirmative action, racial quotas, and preferential hiring schemes, etc. I got my first fifteen minutes of fame by going on tv and arguing that the employer was the individual who should be able to hire the best candidate for the job.

Anyway, we started out with blacks and then anti-discrimination laws forced employers to hire non-Christians, all kinds of colors, then the gay / transgender, etc., etc. Today, in a knee jerk liberal fashion, you're making this argument that employers ought to be forced to hire a certain class of people, thereby making a socialist claim that the jobs belong to us instead of the employer who creates them.

You may think you're winning some big philosophical argument, but you are only joining the liberals in their thinking process. For if the jobs are owned by the government and you get rid of the foreigners, what will it mean? The employers who stay and are not run out by virtue of the tyranny will pick ... who??? for their next job opening? A "legal" Muslim because they are underrepresented in the workforce? A transgender liberal because they are not 50 percent of the workforce???

The only way we can determine what we really need is to allow employers to hire based upon who they think can best fit their needs. Legitimately, we can give the American citizenry a sporting chance by giving employers extra incentives to hire an American workforce, but your blanket statement is out of touch with reality.

You presume that if you got rid of 11 million people, the employers would have to hire 11 million people to replace them. In reality, not only would those jobs disappear, but a significant number of other jobs would disappear as well. So, what do you think the purpose of the big beautiful door idea is all about?