Myths on immigration

You can’t deport 11-12 million illegals already here.

So deport 100,000. If there are so many illegals, it’s what military men refer to as a target rich environment. Round up 100,000 or so and deport them. If I were trying to enter this country illegally, I’d be redoubling my efforts to get it done before the current bill in the Senate passes. Does the current immigration bill differentiate between an illegal who has been here for 15 years working and raising a family and one who came across the border yesterday to take advantage of the impending legislation? How about a provision that says you must be at least 26 years old, in the country for a minimum of five years and or have a legal spouse and children. Any bill ought to end the provision that any child who happens to be born in America is an American. A better law would be that any child born anywhere in the world to an American parent is an American.

Illegals do work Americans won’t do.

No, they stifle innovation and keep wages artificially low. The fact that they are illegal means that employers pay illegals whatever the employers want. The fact that labor costs are kept artificially low means that the innovations that would naturally occur to increase profit and productivity are put on hold while cheap labor keeps profit at an acceptable level.

If anyone thinks that the only jobs illegals are taking are in agribusiness think again. In 1999, while stationed in the Washington D.C. area, I used to walk from the metro stop near my home through a construction site. All of the labor from bricks and mortar to carpentry was being performed by Hispanics. Not all of them legal I’d wager.

America is at or near full employment. America needs illegals or the economy will suffer.

No, America needs more legal immigrants. And that is the one argument I never hear on the other side of this issue – an argument for uniform legal immigration at a rate that will support the country’s labor needs. If we need 11-12 million more immigrant laborers, Congress ought to see to it legally, temporarily and in a uniform manner. It should not just wave a hand and say everyone who broke our laws is now an American citizen because we don’t what to pay the neighborhood kid $20 to mow the lawn when we can get a crew of 8-10 illegals to do it better for $15.

Also, booms don’t last forever. For every boom there is a bust. When this boom ends one of two things will happen. Illegals will continue to be employed below scale pushing American citizens onto welfare or illegals will flood the welfare system.