Thread: End the hysteria over illegal aliens

Here is a little something from our friend Max Boot of the CFR



End the hysteria over illegal aliens

By Max Boot
Sunday, December 9, 2007

Watching the last GOP presidential debate, it was easy to conclude that the greatest threat facing the U.S. is an influx of undocumented immigrants.
Most of the candidates were, as arch-nativist Tom Tancredo put it, trying to out-Tancredo Tancredo. And every time they did, they seemed to get raucous applause from the audience.

Why is it that so many people think that having millions of people come to the United States seeking a better life for themselves presents such a massive threat to this country? Obviously it is wrong for anyone to break the law but the desire of foreigners to come here to work seems like the most benign sort of lawbreaking imaginable.

Lots of other laws are broken routinely -- prostitution laws, speeding laws, tax laws -- and yet they are not the subject of heated exchanges at presidential debates.

What makes illegal immigration so bad? There is no question that an influx of illegals puts pressure on public services, especially in the border states, and that issue needs to be addressed, perhaps with greater assistance from Washington.
But it is hardly unmanageable, especially because illegal immigrants, while making use of some government services, also contribute a lot to society via sales taxes and other means without collecting Social Security, unemployment or other benefits available to legal residents.

Studies of the net economic effect of illegal immigration show mixed results.

Aside from the cost to government, opponents of immigration claim its biggest downsides are lost jobs and lost identity. Neither argument is especially compelling.

We constantly hear that immigrants are taking jobs from Americans. Yet over the past quarter-century, even as illegal immigration has remained high, the U.S. economy has outperformed the rest of the industrialized world.

The economic arguments against immigrants reflect a zero-sum mind-set that holds that there are only a given number of jobs to go around and that they will go to either "foreigners" or "Americans." The reality is that the job market is dynamic and that newly arrived Americans can create more jobs for native-born Americans or can free up low-wage jobs, allowing the native-born to take more skilled (and higher-paying) positions.

The cultural argument against immigrants is that they will destroy America's identity as an Anglo nation. A new survey from the Pew Hispanic Center of 14,000 Hispanics living in the U.S. shows the falsity of that logic. It found that while "fewer than one in four (23 percent) Hispanic immigrants reports being able to speak English very well ... fully 88 percent of their U.S.-born adult children report that they speak English very well. Among later generations of Hispanic adults, the figure rises to 94 percent."

We must assure millions of Latin Americans and others who want to come here to work that they will be allowed in legally. We also need a mechanism for legalizing the millions of undocumented immigrants who are already here, because there is no prospect of rounding them up and sending them home.

That reality is apparent to many sensible Republicans, from President Bush to John McCain and Rudolph Giuliani, but they are having a hard time convincing Republican voters, who seem unreasonably riled up about illegal immigration. As a Republican myself, I can't help thinking there are bigger issues to be concerned about.

Max Boot is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, a contributing editor to the Los Angeles Times' Opinion section and the author of "War Made New: Weapons, Warriors, and the Making of the Modern World."



http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsbu ... 41747.html

The economic arguments against immigrants reflect a zero-sum mind-set that holds that there are only a given number of jobs to go around and that they will go to either "foreigners" or "Americans." The reality is that the job market is dynamic and that newly arrived Americans can create more jobs for native-born Americans or can free up low-wage jobs, allowing the native-born to take more skilled (and higher-paying) positions.

Biggest load of BS I've seen in print. The illegals don't want the lowest-paying jobs, they will undercut native Americans by turning the higher-paying jobs into lower-paying jobs. Employers are the only winners here.

Who says they can't be deported? Take away the carrot, the rabbits leave.

miguelina you took the words right out of my mouth.

I am hysterical over having my neighborhood taken over by these rats.

Ahh, how about because being in the USA illegally is a federal issue.
Just a thought.

The reality is that the job market is dynamic and that newly arrived Americans can create more jobs for native-born Americans or can free up low-wage jobs, allowing the native-born to take more skilled (and higher-paying) positions.

If this is the reality of the job market, then you mean to tell me the native-born Americans are only staying in the low-wage jobs because they need to be done, instead of immediately going to the higher paying jobs that they will assume once the newly arrived (illegals) get here.

Give me a break!!!!

This coming from one of the so called "great thinkers" at the CFR.

Originally Posted by Paige

I am hysterical over having my neighborhood taken over by these rats.

Well, you can thank the moonbats who elected Rocky for that gift. You can identify them by their California license plates.