Why I Support Immigration Rights

Immigration is one of the controversial issues that's been rattling around in my brain lately. It's difficult for me to assess my objectivity, because on one hand, I'm the daughter and granddaughter of immigrants. On the other hand, my immigrant mother and grandfather came here lawfully and taught me to be a law-abiding citizen. But I found out that my mother has bought into the propaganda. That immigrants come here in order to steal from us and change our language.

I disagree with her. I wager that propaganda is the best name for that notion. In order to find some objective answers, I searched for "truth" from both sides of the fence. Sorting out the truth from the BS is what this post is about. Admittedly, this is too large of an issue to tackle on a blog, with my limited time to perform meaningful research, but I've taken what I think is a good stab at it. There is plenty more I could do if given more time, but I don't see that happening anytime soon.

The heart of this controversy, in my eyes, is racism. Of course it's racism, but hate groups cloud that by "objectively" only counting total immigration statistics as opposed to Hispanic immigration. I reject that. We all know what this is about, and that's how I will attack it.

It didn't take very long to find an anti-immigration coalition that has humbly titled itself FAIR (Federation for American Immigration Reform). This organization has compiled a long, long list of damning evidence as to how much immigration costs us financially. I think that this is the best way to tackle this issue. Let's not get into the whole "who stole what from whom" or "who has undeserved entitlement issues" or "who's more patriotic and harder working" stuff. That's too sentimental and subjective. Let's go for the dollars. Dollars can be counted.

The most solid fact that the site has to offer is this: "immigration costs us a net $29 billion a year - more than the combined budgets of the Departments of State, Justice, and Interior" Phew! That's one heck of a lot of money! I'm glad they cowarded themselves out of adding "but not more than the defense budget. They only cost 4% of that." FAIR goes on to report the following horrible truths:

• 17.6 percent of all children four-years old and younger were born to immigrant mothers. A comparable share (16.3%) of older children were also born to immigrant mothers.
• 44 percent of immigrants and their children are in poverty or near poverty (compared to 27.8% of native-born residents).
• 30.9 percent of immigrants and their children do not have health insurance (compared with 13% of native born residents).
• 19.7 percent of immigrant-headed households receive welfare -- despite the fact that illegal immigrants are ineligible for welfare -- (compared with 13.3% of native-born households).
• Incarceration costs of "illegal" immigrants in 2006 equal $376 million.
• Medical costs of "illegal" aliens totals $3.2 billion annually

Add to that list a figure I got elsewhere (uncited) that says that Latinos in the U.S. send around $30 billion to Latin America every year. Man, that's a lot of babies! Population growth! Welfare! Money leaving the economy! Ok, I'll give them that, but the health insurance thing we have to throw out, because the truth is, healthcare isn't a priviledge; it's a right. Are they trying to tell me that it's acceptable that 13.3% of Americans don't have health insurance? Sounds like maybe we could forego a few bombs and straighten that situation out. Sounds like maybe before we go solving the world's problems (which somehow involves killing them) we should take the plank out of our own eyes. All the costs mentioned above are part of that grand total of $29 billion that I mentioned earlier. That still sounds like a princely sum to me. Until I consider the following:

• U.S. Hispanic purchasing power has surged to nearly $700 billion and is projected to reach $1 trillion by 2010, nearly three times the overall national rate of consumer purchasing power over the past decade. (Source: HispanTelligence®)
• Current Hispanic purchasing power is 8.5% of total U.S. purchasing power, but will reach 11% by 2010, when taking into account factors such as the narrowing Hispanic vs. overall U.S. income gap and the increase in the number of Hispanic households with earned income. (Source: HispanTelligence®)
• The net worth of U.S. Hispanics surpassed $534 billion in 2000 - a 30 percent increase since 1998. (Source: HispanTelligence®)
• There are approximately 2 million Hispanic-owned businesses in the country that generate almost $300 billion in annual gross receipts. By 2010, there will be 3.2 million Hispanic firms generating $465 billion (Sources: Small Business Administration, HispanicTelligence®)
• The number of Hispanic-owned companies grew 82 percent since 1997, making them among the fastest-growing business segments in the nation (Source: HispanTelligence®)
• A Junior Achievement poll showed that some 79 percent of Latino teenagers want to start their own businesses,² compared with 69 percent of non-Hispanic white teenagers. (Source: Hispanic Trends)
• 1 out of every 10 small businesses will be Hispanic by the year 2007. (Source: Hispanic Trends)
• Small businesses make up 98 percent of all businesses and create the majority of new jobs added to the economy. (Source: Small Business Administration)
• Hispanic employment has grown more than 16 percent since 2000, while overall U.S. employment has barely grown 2 percent. (Source: HispanTelligence®)
• Hispanic youth account for more than 1/3 of the overall increase in undergraduate enrollment from 1996-2001. (Source: Hispanic Trends)
• Hispanic buying power estimates, which now reach $700 billion, do no include the revenue generated by the undocumented workers in the United States or the revenues generated by the more 4 million people in Puerto Rico.
• The number of prosperous Hispanic households‹those with incomes of at least $100,000‹rose 137 percent between 1990 and 2000 (Source: U.S. Census Bureau)

Now maybe I'm wrong. But it sounds to me like $700 billion and 8.5% of our economy is no small potatoes. And I bet that a lot of that money is *gasp* taxed! Using the median household income for Hispanic households ($33,565) and information from the 2006 Federal Tax Rate Schedule, I found that the average the average Hispanic household, if paying appropriate taxes, pays 14.74% of its annual household income. Here's where my math gets problematic. I can't find current figures on how many Hispanic households there are. The most current info I have is from 1990, when there were 6 million Hispanic families in the U.S. Using Census Bureau data, I know that the Hispanic population grew by 84% since then. That makes for 11 million households. If they all pay taxes at the median bracket, they pay a total of - lo and behold!- $54.73 billion! Ok, how much did we say they cost? $29 billion plus another $3.2 sent out of the country for a whopping total of...$32.2 billion. Here's some math: $54.7 > $32.2. It sounds to me that on top of all the services Hispanics provide to the United States, they also contribute an (admittedly poorly) estimated $22.5 billion annually to the economy. There are your objective numbers.

So numbers clearly aren't the problem. If I strive to be objective, I'd say that the environment is the problem. The land can't sustain so many people and we're driving ourselves into a world of hurt. But I reject that too, because this nation isn't concerned about the environment. If we were, we'd cut our energy expenditures. And I have to say - maybe it's racist of me - but I've heard statistics before on how many Hispanic-origin people use bicycles and public transit, and they were high. Seems to me like they're not the problem there either.

But I can keep talking. I'm not known for brevity. All of this is assuming that anyone else has any right to be here and that we'd be just fine without them. I don't know about you, but I don't think there's such a thing as "we" and "they." I'd miss 8.5% of the economy (and my friends). I also know that in general, Americans aren't having any kids. Just who the heck do we think is going to take care of us when we get old? God bless U.S.-based Hispanic women for continuing to have babies, huh? Well, what about abiding by the law? I am a law-abiding citizen after all. Well, I say screw this law. We once allowed slavery to be legal and last I checked, a lot of states still have a "rule of thumb." I think laws can be written and laws can be re-written.

I think we as a nation would do well to think of the wise Tyler Durden when he said the following:

"Look, the people you are after are the people you depend on. We cook your meals, we drive your ambulances. We connect your calls. We guard you while you sleep. Do not **** with us."