Saturday, November 14, 2015

Illegal Immigration: Myths, Facts, Solutions

In one pithy post here, I would like to allay any and all myths regarding illegal immigration. I would also like to postulate simple solutions to this problem.

Some Statistics.  At the present time it is estimated that 12 million illegal aliens live in the United States.  It is also estimated that about 700,000 are coming into our country illegally, and staying here, each year.  Most of these illegal aliens are unskilled and uneducated. They are not doctors, lawyers, mathematicians, or scientists, or people who will make our country better.  This is why they must come here illegally.

Here are the myths, the truths, and the solutions. 

Myth #1:  Illegal Immigration is not an economics issue.  False.  Illegal immigrants affect the economy in a negative way.  Even the New York Times acknowledges this. Minimum wage laws do not apply to illegal immigrants. So, rather than blue berry farmers (for example) having to pay $8.50 for seasonal blue berry pickers, illegal immigrants are willing to take $5 an hour. So, in this way, illegal immigrants drive down wages. Plus, economics 101 says that if you flood the market with people willing to do a job, wages will go down.  If you have a million low skilled and uneducated men willing to pick blue berries, this bodes well for illegal immigrants searching for work, and it also bodes well for the blue berry pickers who now pay less wages. But it does not bode so well for the American man who need that job to support his family. So, as you can see, the influx of illegal immigrants also explains why we have a record 94 million working age men and women no longer looking for work, and why the unemployment rate is as high as 40%.

Some more statistics.  The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated that, between 2008 and 2010, over a million U.S. jobs were filled by illegal immigrants. Illegal aliens pay no taxes, but they are able to receive a free education, free healthcare, free housing assistance, and food stamp benefits. This comes at an annual cost that exceeds tens of billions of dollars each year.

Myth #2.  Illegal immigrants do the work no Americans are willing to do.  False.  Actually, this  is the argument that the republican establishment -- i.e. Jeb Bush and John Kasich -- used to support their proposals for amnesty (official pardons) for illegal immigrants already living here. They see illegal immigration as a necessity in order to fill the jobs that no one else wants to do.  They see this as the "nice" or "kind-hearted" solution to the immigration issue.  They think if they are seen as "nice" and "kind-hearted" that people will be more likely to vote for them. They also falsely believe that, once they become citizens, they will vote republican.  But it's not that no one wants to do these jobs. In fact, who do you think did these jobs before the influx of illegal immigrants? It was Americans. Americans who need to support themselves and their families, and cannot find jobs elsewhere, would be more than happy to do the jobs illegal immigrants are doing.

Solution #1.  Enforce immigration laws already on the books. Penalize employers who hire illegal aliens. This will make it so they cannot find work, and will be forced to leave on their own.  As you will see in a moment, this is a method Dwight D. Eisenhower used.

Myth #3.  Deporting illegal aliens would be impossible. False.  It is not impossible.  In fact, Dwight D. Eisenhower deported 1.5 million illegal aliens.  This was a point that Trump recently reminded Bush and Kasich about. You can add to this that Harry S. Truman deported 3.4 million illegal aliens.  So it is not impossible to deport illegal aliens, and it has been done before. In fact, Eisenhower did this during a post war economic boom.  He didn't want to slow down the economy by allowing illegal aliens to take jobs away from Americans.  He also didn't want to see wages go down.

Myth #4.  Deporting illegal aliens would be inhumane.  When people were deported in the 1940s and 1950s, sometimes inhumane methods were used.  Sometimes aliens would be deported to the middle of a dessert.  In one incident 88 died.  But Trump said those were isolated incidents.  He said he would be sure to use good management to make sure the deportations were done humanely.  But most would not have to be deported, because if the employers who hired them were penalized, there would be no jobs for them and they'd go home on their own.  Saying it would be inhumane to deport illegal aliens, or that we would be breaking up families, is just an excuse by people who don't want to do it.  Mexico deports illegal aliens all the time, and you don't hear sob stories about that.  Rush Limbaugh said that if 12 million tax payers decided not to pay taxes, the IRS would find them and not worry about the impact of putting them in jail on their families. Look, democrats and establishment republicans are constantly talking about compassion for illegal immigrants and their families.  What they don't talk about is compassion American workers who get "screwed because of all the unskilled, and uneducated workers that will work for dirt cheap," said Limbaugh.

Myth #5.  Illegal Aliens won't leave on their own.  False.  During the Eisenhower administration, 2.1 million illegal aliens went home on their own.  He was able to do this simply by enforcing laws already on the books and penalizing employers who hire illegal immigrants. When there is no work, illegal immigrants have no choice but to go home.

More Statistics.   Some are sick with infectious diseases and never would have been allowed legally. Likewise, many are criminals who never would been allowed in legally, so they sneak in and commit their crimes here. It costs states billions of dollars each year to incarcerate criminals who never should have been in the U.S. to begin with. They make up about 30% of prisoners in local, state, and federal prisons.

Myth #6.  We have always had an open borders policy. False.  Between 1924 and 1965 we had a closed border policy. This was why Eisenhower and Truman were forced to deal with an influx of illegal aliens.

Myth #7.  Deporting illegal aliens would be racist and mean spirited. False. It's not mean to deport people who broke the law. They are illegal.  They came here illegally.  They are ruining our economy.  They need to be punished. You know that Eisenhower had some illegal aliens taken home, and they came back.  So he took them back home, and they came back again.  So then he had them taken someplace way on the other side of Mexico, and they never came back.  This was a man who was referred to as a nice guy. Enforcing the law doesn't make you mean. Even the Bible teaches that those who break the law are sinners who should be punished. Punishing those who break the law is not being mean.

Solution #2.  Build a wall.  Building a wall would make it really tough for people to come in illegally.  There was a bill passed seven years ago by Congress allowing for a 700 mile wall to be built. During the Obama administration, less than 50 miles of this law has been built.

Myth #8.  Building a wall would be impossible.  False.  There is a wall in Israel and it works.  There is a wall in China and it works.

Solution #3.  Enforce the laws already on the books.

Myth #9.  There are no laws to deal with illegal immigrants.  False. There are enough laws on the books that, if they are enforced, would solve the immigration problem.  Penalize employers who hire illegal immigrants. Build a wall. Guard the wall. Send anyone who comes in illegally back home. These are all covered by laws already on the books.

Myth #10.  People who don't support amnesty hate immigrants.  False.  No one is opposed to people coming into this country legally.  In fact, this is a good thing.  And, very important here, just because I agree with Donald Trump that a wall needs to be built, and that the 12 million illegal immigrants should be sent home, does not mean I hate immigrants.  It does not mean I'm racist.  It does not mean I lack passion.  It does not mean losing my big heart. It does not mean I am against the idea of people coming into our country with the dream of making a better life for themselves. They can still come in. They can do it legally. I am anti illegal immigrant.  I am anti invasion of immigrants.  I am not anti immigrant.

Myth #11.  Illegal immigration is not a serious issue.  I think that Ted Cruz explained why this is a myth when he spoke at the presidential debate on Fox Business Network. He said: "I understand that when the mainstream media covers immigration, it doesn’t often see it as an economic issue. But I can tell you for millions of Americans at home, watching this, it is a very personal economic issue. And I will say the politics of it would be very, very different if a bunch of lawyers or bankers were crossing the Rio Grande. Or if a bunch of people with journalism degrees were coming over and driving down the wages in the press. Then we would see stories about the economic calamity that is befalling our nation. And I will say for those of us who believe people ought to come to this country legally and we should enforce the law, we’re tired of being told, it is anti-immigrant. It’s offensive."

Myth #12.  Illegal immigration is a civil rights issue.  False. Democrats, and those of the republican establishment, like Bush and Kasich, see immigration as a civil rights issue. They see them as people of color who just want to make a better life for themselves. So that is the reason they come here illegally.  They just want a chance.  And if we do not let them stay, if we don't grant them amnesty, then we are not being fair to them.  And, for the record, civil rights means that we enforce the laws equally among the people. You cannot grant amnesty to just people you like.  It's not a civil rights issue because the laws clearly state that anyone who comes in illegally, anyone at all, should be deported.  It's not a civil rights issue.  All illegal aliens have broken the law. All illegal aliens should be deported.  If you just let some stay because they are Mexicans, or some stay just because they are your friends, then it would be a civil rights issue.

Myth #13:  Illegal immigration is important to the economy.  False.  There is no economic value in allowing people to come in to our country illegally.  All the economic value from immigrants is achieved by the legal process.  The influx of illegal immigration has a negative impact on the economy, as I explained above.

And more statistics.  The cost of educating the children of illegal aliens was estimated to cost $12,000,000,000 in 2006. So here is another reason illegal immigrants are a burden on the economy.

And a scary fact.  Terrorist cells have been set up in Mexico, and they are making their way into the United States.  Illegal drugs are also crossing our borders and being sold to our kids. So while we are fighting terrorists around the globe, we are allowing terrorists to cross our borders without even blinking an eye.  While we are fighting a war on drugs here, we are doing nothing to prevent illegal aliens from carrying it into our country with them.

Myth #12:  Illegal immigration has no impact on social fabric of America.  False.  Illegal immigration does have a negative impact on American Culture. Many people who come in illegally do not love America the way we do.  They are coming here, and they are not learning our language, and they are not accepting of our culture. Rather than assimilate into our culture, they are holding onto theirs. And I'm not saying people have to give up their culture when they come here, I'm just saying they should be Americans first. Having people of other cultures in America is one of the many things that makes America great. But people who come here must be willing to accept our culture, not change it or water it down. Traditionally, immigrants yearned to assimilate into American culture.  People who came here loved this country so much they wanted to be a part of it.  Today, many immigrants, particularly illegal immigrants, are not willing to assimilate, and instead want us to change to accept their culture. Rather than them learning our language, they want us to learn theirs. The influx of illegal immigration is watering our country down to the point that we have no culture. Rather than being a great big melting pot with one culture, we have become a salad bowl of many cultures. This is bad, because the American culture was about a dream than anyone who had an idea and a desire could improve their lot in life.  The American culture was deeply ingrained in Christianity, and it is from this that our founding documents was established.  It was on the Christian culture that traditional American values and liberties were formed. It was from the Christian culture that made America exceptional.  Many aliens are not willing to accept this.  When they come in legally, we can make sure that the people coming in are willing to assimilate so that we can keep the fabric of our country, of our culture, together. Finally, one of the reasons for the fall of Rome was because Romans were no longer willing, or able, to stop the influx of Germans into Rome. Each German clan had it's own culture, and they were not willing to adapt the Roman way of life.  The fabric of Roman culture gradually ripped apart so that Roman Citizens were ultimately seen as nothing special. This, many believe, was one of the reasons for the fall of Rome. So we need to make sure that those we let in share a love for America. Those who come here legally, and who plan on becoming citizens, are far more likely to place their loyalty to their adopted nation above their loyalty to their birth land. Those who come in with the intent of making money are more likely to hold on to the culture of their native land and shun the American way of life. They are only taking advantage of our great economy for their own personal benefit, and have nothing else to offer. They may even hate America and wish to destroy it from within.

Myth #13:  Most Americans support Amnesty.  False.  In fact, 70% of Americans believe illegal immigration hurts U.S. culture, and 63% believe they have a negative impact on our economy.  In fact, as of April 2015, 65% of likely U.S. voters oppose Obama's plan to grant amnesty to 5 million illegal aliens and allow them to apply for jobs legally.  This is similar to similar polls showing most Americans oppose an open border policy and amnesty. This should explain why Trump has gained so much momentum as a republican candidate, because he is so passionately opposed to illegal immigration and has championed for a wall, deportation, and enforcing immigration laws. These are things both Obama and George W. Bush failed to do. It is also something John Kasich and Jeb Bush have said they would not do. For the record, Marco Rubio is pretty much pro amnesty as well.  Trump and Cruz are your anti illegal immigration candidates. For the record, and again, they are not anti immigrant, they are anti illegal immigrant. Most people in this country want to see a resolution to the immigration crisis (the invasion), and that's why Trump is doing so well in the polls. The truth is that, I don't think democrats and establishment republicans have a clue what a majority of Americans think about illegal immigration. They want to force their view on the people, and the people want nothing to do with it. The truth is that Trump's immigration plan is right on par with what a majority of Americans want. Every republican elected since 2010 has been elected to stop it, and yet, once elected, most republicans just give in to democrats. Trump is in unique territory here, because he says he will solve the illegal immigration problem when he is elected. Some say his immigration plan is out of the mainstream, but the polls show that he is right on par with voters.

Myth #14: Whoever (republicans or democrats) passes immigration reform (a.k.a. amnesty) will get the votes of Mexican Americans.  False.  Establishment republicans actually think if they support amnesty Mexican Americans will see them as the good guys and vote for them.  They see it as similar to when republicans passed laws making blacks citizens.  The truth is that in the 2010 midterm election 60% of Mexican Americans voted democrat, and there's no evidence to suggest that supporting amnesty would change this.  The way to get more votes from any subgroup in America is to support programs that make America better for everyone in it, and both amnesty and illegal immigration make things worse as proven above.  The truth is that immigration reform, or amnesty, or whatever you want to call it, will result in millions more democrats. This might be proof that the money people are running the republican party and the democratic party.  They don't even try to create programs the people want anymore. They don't even try to be on the same page as the public.  They don't even try to satisfy public opinion. If they did, they would all be opposed to illegal immigration and try to stop it.

Myth #15.  We need immigration reform.  False.  What we need to do is enforce the laws already on the books.  In fact, we really shouldn't be referring to this as a problem with immigration, as immigration has a system.  You come in legally, you come here with a purpose, you follow the laws, and then you either leave or, after a time, if you are deemed a good person who has something to offer, you can apply for citizenship. When you have people coming in illegally by the thousands on a daily basis, it's not illegal immigration, it's an invasion. We have people invading our country and we are doing nothing about it accept trying to pass amnesty laws. We do not need more laws.  We do not need immigration reform because there is no problem with immigration.  To say we need immigration reform is to assume we have no immigration laws, and we do. All we need is to enforce the laws already written to stop the invasion.

Myth #16. Deporting illegals and building a fence would be too expensive.  What is immigration reform?  According to most politicians, it is amnesty, open borders, and cheap labor.  Trump proposes that we do the opposite. He proposes to build a fence, enforce laws on the books, deport illegal immigrants or encourage them to leave on their own, end NAFTA and go back to tariffs, and end practice of granting U.S. citizenship to children of illegal immigrants.  I only mention this to give an example here.  The latest estimates suggest that Trump's immigration plan would cost $166 billion. So people say we can't do it because it's too expensive.  Well, Obama increased the national debt since he was elected by $8 trillion.  He has spent $4.5 trillion on quantitative easing. How much has he spent on food stamps? The media didn't bat an eye when that money was spent.  But here we have someone willing to secure our borders to make our nation safer and to boost our economy, and all of a sudden coming up with money is not possible. That $166 billion is chump change, especially considering it will result in healthcare savings, education savings, food stamp savings, increased wages, and less unemployed or less unemployed and no longer seeking employment. Plus it will also result in fewer undocumented diseased and fewer criminals and terrorists crossing our borders and hiding in the shadows within our own country.

Final Fact.  Republicans used to own California.  It wasn't long ago that republican who became governor of California would be prime candidates for president.  Ronald Reagan was one of them.  This ended in 1986.  Today republicans don't have a single seat statewide. Only a Rhino like Arnold could become governor.  Democrats have control of everything in California, and there is a greater divide between the richest and the poorest than any other state. Rush Limbaugh explained this. He said: "You can tie the end of the Republican Party in California to 1986, and that was the Simpson-Mazzoli amnesty immigration bill. Unfortunately, this was a bill Ronald Reagan signed.  It may have been his biggest mistake as president. We're talking back then 3.9 million illegal aliens granted amnesty. Since then it's been curtains for the Republican Party, which means constant victory for the Democrat Party. They have shaped that state, and it's a mess. And it's a harbinger of where we're going nationwide. The people of this country do not want that and they're scared to death of losing their country, and immigration is the top of the reasons why they think it can happen. And they see both parties in cahoots to make it happen, and they don't understand it. People that love America do not understand this. I mean, even when you tell 'em, "Well, big-money donors say this because they want X, Y, and Z," it still doesn't make any sense. How does that trump patriotism? How does all that matter more to these people, elected officials, than patriotism, love of country, America, shining city on a hill and all that, why does that not matter anymore? "

Bottom Line.  Amnesty for illegal aliens is unfair to those who came here legally.  It is not fair to the millions of Americans who are willing to do the work illegal aliens are being hired cheaply to do.  It's not fair to the American economy either, as wages are kept low and unemployment rates kept high. Deport illegal immigrants, prevent more from coming in, and all these problems are solved. Allow people who are willing to work, and who have a dream that might make America better, to come into our home legally.  We are a nation of laws.  We need to enforce the laws. People like Trump and Cruz are standing up for the rule of law.

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