Immigration Part 2 - Another long one

I told you guys I could keep going on and on about this issue. This evening, I got a comment from a locked profile. I think locked profiles are unfair (and the mark of a coward), and so does Blogger, because when you click on the person's name, a message comes up saying that Blogger encourages unlocking your profile. How is it fair that she gets full access to my opinions over the last 3 years or so, and I can't read hers? So in response, I'm posting the comment and my rebuttal. And then I think I'll rant a little bit more.

Christina - you just have to look at this video to understand the HUGE problem we have in this country because we have left our southern border virtually wide open. It is not about racism. It is about preserving our American culture, our language and our country from being overrun by millions of people, most of whom are barely educated in their homeland.

Video

If you care about the illegal immigrants you should not wish for them to come here and be exploited and live in the shadows. You should wish for them to either have a better life in their homeland or be able to come here legally. But as a country we cannot take in every person who wants a better life. If we did that we would have no country left! There must be a limit and we have surpassed it. We take in more immigrants as a country than ALL THE OTHER COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD COMBINED. Enough is enough!

My first concern is whether this person even read the numbers in my post. They're all cited and not made up. Did you guys miss the part where I said that $54.7 > $32.2? Ah well, I guess people can't read. But that doesn't stop me from typing. My second concern is that I think I made it abundantly clear that I do think that making immigration legal is the solution. I guess that was easily missed too.

So I looked at the video. I began this with hopes for objectivity anyway, and I welcome information from both sides of the fence. I have to say that nothing in the video was the earth-shattering raw data that would change my opinion. In fact, it was largely the same information I posted here last night. The only difference was that there was footage of this guy's speech which he gave to a highly sympathetic audience that would nod in approval or look shocked when confronted with the numbers I posted last night. He just didn't show any of the dollar figures. But he did make sure to have two token black people and one Asian person in the audience. We're a very diverse nation, after all. And they made sure to capture the black man nodding in stunned approval.

Everything in the video was true. The untruths in this video are not what it said, but the unspoken suggestions that it made. For instance, the speaker claims that immigrants between 1925 and 1965 assimilated quickly and did well in our economy due to a tight labor market. This creates the assumption in the audience that current immigrants do not assimilate quickly and do not do well because we do not have a dire need for their labor; a sentiment which is echoed by our anonymously profiled "Ruthiness" when she (or possibly he) said "It is about preserving our American culture, our language and our country from being overrun by millions of people, most of whom are barely educated in their homeland."

"Our" American culture and English language are important. So important that they become a tool for scaring people out of appreciating the positive impact immigrants have on our nation. So let's clear this one up right now. This quote comes from the Washington Post:

Only 7 percent of the children of Latino immigrants speak Spanish as a primary language, and virtually none of their children do. Just as they did a century ago, immigrants largely come knowing little English. But they learn, and their children use it as a primary language. The United States is not becoming a bilingual nation. The children of Latino immigrants do especially well at work. James P. Smith of Rand Corp. has shown that the children and grandchildren of Latino immigrants come very close to closing educational and income gaps with native whites. This is the same as it has always been in American immigration: Newcomers know what keeps them outside the mainstream and work hard to make sure that their children do better. Immigrant Latino men make about half of what native whites do; their grandsons earn about 78 percent of the salaries of their native white friends.[1]

Hmm. Someone's been telling you lies, Ruthy.

It's true. As a country, we can't take everyone in. But how many years of there not being jobs available for immigrants do you think it would take for immigrants to stop coming? Not many, I think. After the first few go home saying "Man, you really don't want to go to America...there are no jobs there for hard workers!" people would stop coming. The fact is, we employ them because we need them. Is it fair that people wait to come while others cross and get away with it? Absolutely not. We should open the doors. When immigration becomes more of a burden than a blessing to our economy, it will stop of its own accord.

The environment, however, is a problem. We're ruining it. The speaker in the video warns us solemnly that our grandchildren's future will be foreclosed if we keep allowing immigrants in the numbers we're receiving. Well, our granchildren are screwed, but not because of immigration. There won't be much environment waiting for them if we keep our current energy expenditures up. So Ruth, I'll make a deal with you. When you and every anti-immigration advocate stops driving cars and wasting water and electricity, and we have enough immigrants to manage the needed labor, I'll jump on your bandwagon, because we will have made the necessary changes of our own accord. Cut your fossil fuel expenditures by the approximately 5/7 that I have, and get all your friends to do it. Then I'll buy your concern for our lack of space and we can talk.

On to the bigger matter. Immigration, in my opinion, is a diversionary tactic. Our economy does have problems. We are heading into a downturn, but it won't be the immigrants' faults. We've allowed corporations to send jobs overseas. These corporations aren't paying appropriate taxes and Americans are actually losing the jobs that were sent offshore. The most recent figures I found say that $639 billion in corporate earnings should have been taxed at a rate of 35% in 2002, but they weren't. That represents a loss of $223 billion in taxes in 2002 - and that was an increase of 58% over 1999. So if you assume it increased by a steady amount during the next three years, we would have lost $354 billion in 2005 (which is almost 11x more than immigrants cost us annually.) But by all means, go after the small fish.

To anyone (even my friends) who makes the valid case that illegal immigrants don't pay taxes on money earned, my answer is two-fold. First, that money would be taxed if immigration were freely allowed; and second, each one of us should count the amount of untaxed income we've earned in our lifetimes. Let's take a hard look at our own lives before casting stones.

The last comment I have to make is that I do care about improving conditions in the third world. I understand that we can't solve their problems by bringing them all here. But thinking that the solution lies in sending aid only is naive. Our government's idea of sending aid usually comes in the form of an explosive. Our corporations' idea of sending aid is to build offshore sweatshop factories to exploit the poor. The best intentioned thing we can do is send aid personally. I have a close friend that opted to purchase a cow for a third world family instead of receiving Christmas gifts. That's probably one of the best ideas. I personally sponsor some third world child myself. What do you do? Americans can't let fears that their aid will be misused stop us from acting. We just need to remember that help cannot be found in incendiary devices and fences along borders.

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[1] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/11/AR2006061100922.html