I’ve read, heard and thought about every argument against allowing illegal immigrants to stay in the US. And I’ve come to the conclusion that the only decent thing to do is, after immigration reform, to immediately send back any illegal immigrants back to their country of origin, with a bill to that country for repatriation costs. That being said, the immigration reform needed is to fully open immigration to most people trying to come to the United States with the exception of known criminals.
Bear with me as we go through the arguments against people who are jumping the border.
Argument 1: The Illegal Immigrants are coming to take jobs Americans need.
All I need to do is counter that with the second argument.
Argument 2: The illegal immigrants are coming up for a free ride.
I’m not sure how anyone can make both arguments with a straight face. How can people be coming up to work AND freeload? I think clearly the answer is most are coming to work. And yes I am sure there are exceptions but we have exceptions without the immigrants as well.
Argument 3: Yes but they are working tax free and using services that we pay taxes for.
Actually about 50% of the illegal immigrants currently pay taxes per the IRS. And that includes taxes for things they are not currently eligible to receive, to include Social Security. In addition, for taxes not to be collected, it is not the illegal immigrant to blame, it’s the employers that hire them, knowing the immigrants are afraid to complain.
How could we make the payment of taxes near 100%? That’s right. Make the immigration legal. It will raise the wages for these workers to at least the minimum wage, level the playing field for both immigrants and current citizens and would encourage immigrants that are not being paid legally to speak up. Because in reality we should be blaming the companies and people that hire them for less than minimum wage and underreport payroll. That’s the real crime and who we should be angry at.
Argument 4: Since they are breaking the law by jumping the fence, they have no respect for law.
I hope you never speed.
Argument 5: Criminals are coming in.
Yes, but if we fully open immigration, people won’t be afraid to immigrate legally. The paperwork will be done. People will be tracked, and criminals return. Everyone else will want to come through the normal way, and that way, when you DO see someone border jumping, you know their crime is greater than just trying to escape poverty and violence and those people can be immediately returned.
Argument 6: My father/mother/grandfather/eighteenth cousin by marriage on my mother’s side immigrated legally, and that wouldn’t be fair.
This presumes that you A. think that the laws have never changed since Capt. John Smith landed in Virginia. B. That things should never change.
I’m very glad you were not a horse and buggy driver in turn of the Century New York that was striking against the automobile because they didn’t want things to change.
Some other points to ponder
The reality is the current immigration system is overly complex and at best, unintentionally racist (populous countries are limited to how many people can immigrate from their country – other than the United States, Russia is the only majority white country of the fifteen most populous countries in the world).
For those of you that either participated in, or supported the Occupy movements, which was based on income inequality, there is a good bet, that on the world stage, you are part of the 1%. If you really want to be the 99% percenter, you should support immigration reform to include more open immigration.
Per ForeignPolicy.Com –
“So by global standards, America’s middle class is also really, really rich. To make it into the richest 1 percent globally, all you need is an income of around $34,000, according to World Bank economist Branko Milanovic. The average family in the United States has more than three times the income of those living in poverty in America, and nearly 50 times that of the world’s poorest. Many of America’s 99 percenters, and the West’s, are really 1 percenters on a global level.
Nor did the Western 99 percent “earn” most of their wealth, any more than the top 1 percent “earned” theirs. It’s the luck of where you’re born, according to the late Nobel Prize-winning economist Herbert Simon, who estimated that the benefits of living in a well-functioning economy probably account for 90 percent of individual income.”
In other words, if you supported any portion of the Occupy Movement and oppose opening immigration, I am not sure how you make sense of that.
The reality is we pride ourselves on being generous and kind and we profess that the United States was founded on Christian Principles. One of the strongest principles is Social Justice. We should strongly consider that when considering immigration reform.
I’m sure none of this changes anyone’s mind.
Leave a Reply