http://www.roanoke.com/editorials/comme ... 31563.html

Monday, September 05, 2005

Immigrant flood is swamping America

Barbara McEwan

McEwan is a retired biology teacher living in Forest.

Those individuals who favor allowing foreigners to enter and stay in our country in violation of our laws ignore several basic reasons why American citizens cannot allow this to happen. Facts overlooked by supporters of illegals follow:

First, the number of potential immigrants is vast. We forget how low the standard of living is for most of Earth's 6 billion-plus people. The Roanoke Times ran an article on Aug. 18 regarding a poll by the Pew Hispanic Center, which found that "four out of every 10 Mexican adults would migrate to the United States if they had the means and opportunity to do so." It also said, "very significant portions of the Mexican adult population have the thought of migration in mind and view it as an option."

Pew found the number of illegal immigrants growing by roughly 485,000 people a year, with Mexicans accounting for 70 percent of the total. In 2004 an estimated 10.3 million people lived here who had deliberately broken our laws by sneaking across our border or overstaying their visas, an increase of about 23 percent from 8.4 million in 2000 (Roanoke Times, March 22) .

What other law-breakers do we allow to go unpunished? Who benefits from this flood besides the illegal immigrants themselves?

Employers who hire them because an oversupply of applicants can then lower wages. Americans cannot accept them and retain our standard of living in terms of food, clothing and housing costs, with a few extras such as an automobile added. Currently some 5 percent of our population is unemployed and would be working, provided only that a decent wage was paid. The more applicants (in this case illegals) for a job, the lower the wage for Americans.

In addition, illegals who succeed here are those most needed in their homelands to improve conditions.

The Wall Street investment firm Bear Stearns concluded the government has grossly underestimated the size of the illegal population, putting it at 20 million not 10 million. Bear Sterns estimated that illegal aliens hold 12 million to 15 million jobs -- 8 percent of the current labor force. Between 4 million and 6 million jobs have shifted to the underground labor market, and Bear Stearns concludes that the average annual earnings of American workers have been reduced by 4 percent to 6 percent. Barron's financial publication concurs.

Census Bureau figures show that throughout our country, many counties have few illegals and all work is done by millions of white or black Americans. The idea that the latter would refuse to do manual labor is not borne out by the facts. What is borne out by the facts is that illegals, no matter their origin, take jobs away from our citizens. We don't need illegals to keep this country running.

Analysis of Census Bureau figures like that done by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) verifies the costs of illegals to American taxpayers. Nearly two-thirds of illegals lack a high school diploma, resulting in low incomes and tax payments. As a result, illegal alien households are estimated to cost $2,700 a year more per household in services than they pay in taxes (asuming they are not underground and paying nothing). This totaled a burden of nearly $10.4 billion on the federal budget in 2002. The largest federal costs follow: Medicaid ($2.5 billion), treatment for the uninsured ($2.2 billion), food assistance programs ($1.9 billion), federal prison and court systems ($1.6 billion) and federal aid to schools ($1.4 billion). In 2002, the net loss to U.S. natives from immigration was $68 billion, a $14 billion increase just since 1998.

Between 2000 and 2004, the number of unemployed adult natives increased by 2.3 million while the number of employed adult immigrants increased by 2.3 million. Half of this increase is estimated to be from illegal immigration. The number of working age natives (18-64) who left the labor force altogether in this period because of lack of employment opportunities increased by 4 million.

Most important of all: The U.S. population of 150 million that prevailed in the 1940s has long been considered by scientists who study such things as the maximum number of people American natural resources can support over the long term. Our population now approaches double that: 300 million. To compensate for this excess we, 5 percent of Earth's population, import up to 30 percent and more of the basic nonrenewable resources, such as oil.

We must end illegal immigration, drastically reduce legal immigration and lower our native birth rate, the highest of all developed nations. We must control our borders. We must heavily fine employers who hire illegals. We must end the current practice of providing automatic citizenship to any baby born here.

The house is full.