AND WHAT SHOULD WE DO WITH THEM?
The issue of illegal immigration is front and center … again. Politicians are debating what causes it … and what to do about it.
But before we go into all that, let’s look at the numbers …
According to the Pew Research Center (which used Census Bureau data in its calculations) there were 11.7 million illegal aliens in America in 2012.
“The estimated number of unauthorized immigrants peaked at 12.2 million in 2007 and fell to 11.3 million in 2009, breaking a rising trend that had held for decades,” the center noted last September. “Although there are indications the number of unauthorized immigrants may be rising, the 2012 population estimate is the midpoint of a wide range of possible values and in a statistical sense is no different from the 2009 estimate.”
Two years earlier, Pew estimated illegal immigrant populations on a state-by-state basis using 2010 data – determining that California had the nation’s largest number of illegal immigrants (2.5 million – or 6.8 percent of the state’s population). Nevada led the nation with a 7.2 percent immigrant population.
South Carolina? Its illegal alien population was 1.2 percent in 2010 – well below neighboring North Carolina (3.5 percent) and Georgia (4.4 percent).
So …
Now that we know roughly what sort of numbers we’re dealing with, what’s to be done?
First of all, this website has never pandered to the “deport everybody” crowd. On the flip side, we don’t embrace the “pathway to citizenship” (although some “pathway to status” seems reasonable).
“What the hell do (people) think a ‘pathway to citizenship’ is?” we wrote recently, “… beyond a glaringly obvious admission that America lacks the resources and political will to deport anybody.”
Indeed …
So if nobody’s going to get deported, what’s the answer to the immigration debate?
We believe it is multi-faceted. First of all, the security of America’s borders is a core function of government – one that’s been neglected as Washington’s welfare and warfare states (and crony capitalism, eco-radicalism and regulatory terrorism) have spiraled out of control. Why not stop subsidizing millions of things government shouldn’t be doing and start spending tax dollars on one of the handful of things it should do?
Seriously …
Next, a distinction must be made as to what type of immigration – and immigrant – we want to incentivize/ discourage. Just as there are “takers” and “makers” amongst U.S. citizens there are also different types of immigrants – those who come to America to mooch and those who come to work (many of them doing jobs Americans feel are beneath them).
It’s easy to slap convenient stereotypes on people, but remember: Immigrants start companies. They hire people. They buy stuff. And oh by the way they are responsible for a lot of the free market innovations that were driving this country toward unprecedented prosperity. In fact every time you Google something, you’re using technology created by an immigrant.
Hell, when you get right down to it we’re all immigrants …
So why the hostility? It’s easy: People need a bogeyman. They need someone to blame for their lot in life. That’s why we have the stereotypes. That’s why we have hundreds of aspiring Adolf Hitlers out there looking to make Hispanics into the new Jews – a population they believe must be demonized (and then deported) so that uneducated white Americans can have their jobs.
Don’t get us wrong: Those who enter the United States illegally should automatically forfeit their right to American citizenship and taxpayer-funded benefits of any kind. And illegal immigrants who commit violent crimes should be deported immediately. But the bottom line is without its immigrant workforce, America would shut down. And without the immigrant population contributing to the tax base, America is never going to dig its way out of a $17.5 trillion hole.
Immigrants work. If more American citizens did, then we wouldn’t have an immigration problem …
40 comments
When America’s most popular name for male babies is Jose, this author estimates 50 million boots on the ground and in the oven.
This author is a jackass jerk. He hates America. Its proven in what and how he writes. Nobody wants him. He is stuck right where he is at.
If you think this author is happy about the militarization of our county police departments with MRAPS, drones, and federal grants then say they would come to your homes to take your shotguns and revolvers, I am not.
If you think this author is happy about 2.7 Million Children Nationwide Under the Age of 18 with a Parent in Prison or Jail, I am not.
If you think this author is happy paying 7-8 cents a dollar on sales taxes to fund healthcare increases and pension benefits for 10% of South Carolina’s population working for or accepting grants from, I am not.
If you think this author is happy about our state prisons packed with non violent offenders to supply a living for police, judges, prosecutors, criminal defense attorneys, prison officials who in turn are then treated as sub-human with substandard food, lack of proper housing, lack of proper medical attention, dentists, pharmaceuticals, I am not.
Adolph Hitler???? Are you kidding?
You must be talking about the Democrat Party whose candidates FITS now support. Since Roe V. Wade they have endorsed the extermination of over 40 MILLION children.
Hitler could not have done any better and would be proud of the Democrat Socialist Party in America today.
u write sum weird shit
Just the truth.What is false about my comment?
The whole thing.
FUck U!!!!!
“A chartered flight that landed here Monday was the first carrying only
mothers and children deported by the U.S. as it tries to stem a wave of
migration from Central America that has overwhelmed U.S. border
officials. U.S. officials said there would be many more.”
Per Sic Willie, “a glaringly obvious admission that America lacks the resources and political will to deport anybody.” Really?
CNSYD,
There were 40 according to News accounts, out of 70-80 thousand.
Think again.
There are far too many and need to ALL be sent home.
You miss the point. Sic Willie stated that America lacks the resources and political will to deport anybody. That means zero deportees. 40 or 4, it was still more than zero.
while i have met many dozens of people who were in the country without legal status, i have never ever met one who was getting any kind of public assistance. i don’t know why this point about handouts is always raised. and while being present in the US without proper documentation is illegal, so is cheating on your taxes, not paying your child support, or a million other things. the fixation on the legal status of certain immigrants is purely the product of state governments distracting their moronic citizenry by pointing at perceived failings of the federal government.
Actually it is more than a distraction, they are scapegoats for the failure of trickle down economics, pure free trade, and deregulation of the financial services sector. At the insistence of the right we have pursued those policies for 30 years. The result is a middle class in shambles. But how can that be? We know the theories are sound. Friedman and Laffer could not be wrong. It must be all those illegals.
Any of them get sick? If they did, they more than likely went to the emergency room and left you with the bill. Been hit by an illegal immigrant on you’re way home from work? If you haven’t, here’s how it normally goes down, the car will be “borrowed”, the driver will have no license and more than likely the car is uninsured or under insured, your insurance will wind up footing the bill.
If we had immigration reform, they would be required under the ACA to buy health insurance and they could also buy car insurance. Thus solving the two problems you espouse.
I thought Republican liked people going to the emergency room for care. How is that different from an American citizen without health insurance going to the emergency room? Are you ok with footing their bill?
No, I’m not okay with footing anyone’s bill. Your “immigration reform” amounts to amnesty and I’m against that as well.
So you oppose insurance mandates, you oppose socialized health insurance, you oppose socialized medicine, and you oppose paying for people who are uninsured.
So what do we do with the people who cannot pay for health care?
Let them die in Church, in front of their “messiah”
No, I’m not okay with footing anyone’s bill.
——-
The man is in town right now to whip up some support.
A rabble rousing mission that I think we must abort.
He is dangerous!
Jesus Christ Superstar!
He is dangerous!
Look Caiaphas, they’re right outside our yard.
Quick Caiaphas, go call the Roman guard.
No, wait!
We need a more permanent solution to our problem.
Shit we can’t get 25% of American citizens to pay for car insurance.
One less than there might have been, this shirt has to stop. http://www.foxrio2.com/immigrant-boys-body-recovered/
100s of Millions of Americans are NOT immigrants. A total PRO ILLEGAL writing by PRO COCKROACH Will Folks. His facts are like cows. When you look at them in their face, they run! HAHAHAHAA!
Illegals were snuck in at Fort Jackson, fools
The government owns Ft. Jackson….they don’t have to ‘sneak’ illegals on base.
‘ENDLESS WAVE’ FLOODS ACROSS Border’ …. ‘You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet’…
NEW SHOWDOWN SET FOR AZ… SESSIONS WARNS: OBAMA ACTION ‘THREATENS FOUNDATION OF OUR CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLIC’…
DEAD BOY Found Floating in Rio Grande…
95% Expect to Receive ‘Permisos’ to Stay…
CA Health Officials Perplexed By Unusual Spike In Whooping Cough Cases…
Doctor warns of drug-resistant tropical disease outbreak…
Sessions Warns All of Congress: Obama’s New Immigration Strategy ‘Threatens Foundation of Our Constitutional Republic’
Will Folks is an enemy of We The People and the US Constitution.
How many are there? Too fucking many.
All’s I can say is this:
Now we are getting just a little “teensy-weensy” taste of how the Native Americans felt
from around 1650 to 1890!!!!
I don’t know how this shit is going to pan out but it is impossible to stop migration of biological species and the “information highway” is responsible for the former blissfully ignorant to be aware of seemingly “greener pastures” elsewhere.
Damn, that Alvin Toffler is a no-shit prophet fer sure!!!!
Willie, get it right. Stop calling these people “immigrants” That word refers to people who have or are following the legal process to become a citizen. These people are aliens NOT immigrants. Maybe if we stopped useing the PC language we’d have clearer minds to solve the problem. These people are NOT immigrants of any kind. They are illegal ALIENS. Period. Get it right, get it write, so we can get it right.
The jobs aren’t beneath Americans, the wages are. And the only reason for that is the minimum wage law. Get rid of that and businesses will gladly hire someone who’s not a liability and can speak english.
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=24630907
Do you need remedial courses in economics, statistics, or both? The data used in this article (six months) is but a snapshot, and neglects to inform you that nine of the thirteen states listed as having higher job growth are in the bottom half of the country in their unemployment rates.
Minimum wage hurts small businesses more than big businesses. It also guarantees that the least employable (youth, senior citizens, disabled people) will go unemployed. Minimum wage is literally legislating unemployment. Economics 101 teaches you this. Neither you, liberals, nor ABC can defy the laws of economics, no matter how much bogus data you come up with.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTMwVizessk&feature=em-subs_digest
Figures you’d respond with something ignorant. Can’t possibly afford to adjust your views based on sound logic and substance.
I don’t know if you realize this or not, but I didn’t write either of those.
You shared them in lieu of writing your own response. Perhaps you were schooled so hard you don’t have a response, all you can do is find comfort in the vacuum of liberal thought.
Are you at least going to acknowledge the fact that minimum wage, being a price control above where market meets demand, contributes directly to unemployment? Be advised, this is not an opinion, it’s a fundamental law of economics.
Perhaps you were schooled so hard you don’t have a response
——
Well… if it means *that* much to you, I’ll see if I can whip something up
…l saw this article by Christopher Rugaber, an Economics writer for the Associated Press, at about the same time you posted your article, and I was amused by the contrast.
He said, “The 13 U.S. states that raised their minimum wages at the beginning of this year are adding jobs at a faster pace than those that did not, providing some counter-intuitive fuel to the debate..”
counter-intuitive…. fuel to the debate
Facts are stubborn things.
In response, you had this to say:
“Do you need remedial courses in economics, statistics, or both?”
I might have snarked back: “for what?” but obviously, I knew… you wanted to commune with someone with a masters in economics on the finer points of , not discuss the article., not satisfy you that I can copy and paste an article on the subject as ‘counter intuitive fuel for debate.’ … so I didn’t snark back. Instead, I’ll tell you that I am a software engineer with a background in Electrical Engineering so I have a more than passing acquaintance with statistics… as for economics… I know enough about economics to know it’s a social science, which pretty much has always summed it up for me.
Economics is a science which studies human behaviour as a relationship between ends and scarce means which have alternative uses – Lionel Robbins (1932)
“studying human behavior.” Yeah.. that’s more like it. Let’s “study” human behavior, and come up with some concrete and falsifiable laws based on it, from which we can derive well-defined concrete actions that will have well-defined concrete and predictable outcomes. Science, to me, has the goal of documenting cause and effect… the usual goal is statistical certainty over 3 sigma. Good luck with that. Study all you want, distill all the data collected to date, and come up with objective conclusions drawn from your “general trends,” and see if you can produce a result that doesn’t require tomes of apologetics to rival the vast encyclopedia of biblical commentary.
No thank you.
However, the article refers to Economists… fictional Economists, perhaps, who knows with “Economists?” … who support a higher minimum wage say the figures are encouraging, though they acknowledge they don’t establish a cause and effect.
How about that? Admitting there’s no cause and effect established.
You said:
“The data used in this article (six months) is but a snapshot…”
..apparently to underscore what those nasty liberal economists already said.
“and neglects to inform you that nine of the thirteen states listed as having higher job growth are in the bottom half of the country in their unemployment rates.”
That’s what I’ve got *you* for… however, those 9 are mentioned this way:
“Nine of the 13 states increased their minimum wages automatically in line with inflation:
Arizona, 42
Colorado, 19
Florida, 29
Missouri,34
Montana,10
Ohio, 19
Oregon, 40
Vermont 2
Washington.25
Four more states — approved legislation mandating the increases.”
Connecticut, 39
New Jersey, 36
New York, 36
Rhode Island, 50
I took the liberty of adding their unemployment rankings. Now we can see 9 states are in the bottom half of the rankings.. if you include Washington in the bottom half… which somehow eliminates any significance to higher employment… I guess if you’re poor, and you are offered more money to flip burger, you get off welfare, and go get the better paying job? I’m sure you have a ready answer.. since it’s obvious to “Economists.” But I fail to see what point that would make, since the data is “just a snapshot.”
Looking at statistical information that has no anchor in cause and effect, and declaring that some factor in the data would have impeached it anyway, seems to be tilting at windmills. “The guy is dead, so we can’t ask him if he did it… but then again, why won’t he give us an alibi?”
The MashPotato Manifesto:
1. Minimum wage hurts small businesses more than big businesses.
2. It also guarantees that the least employable (youth, senior citizens, disabled people) will go unemployed.
3. Minimum wage is literally legislating unemployment.
4. Economics 101 teaches you this.
5. Neither you, liberals, nor ABC can defy the laws of economics, no matter how much bogus data you come up with.
Impressive. Now, for the hundreds of folks on here who might doubt that these are “laws of economics” – how about a link that proves these assertions in simple language, like “the sum of the currents into a node equals the sum of the currents leaving that node.” with documented statistical experiments that can be duplicated at home.
Thanks.
I’m not very interested in giving economics lessons to people who reject them for no reason other than incompatibility with their political philosophy. But I’ll give it a try, because watching you reject well understood laws of economics, while very disappointing, is also mildly amusing.
http://doe.state.wy.us/lmi/mw/images/figur3.gif
Any high school or college economics student is familiar with the supply and demand graph. In the labor market, as the price goes up, the supply goes up and demand goes down. The minimum wage law raises the price of labor. The effects are simple and predictable- supply goes up and demand goes down. The resulting disparity is unemployment.
We have immigration law, who authorized not enforcing these laws? We are a nation of laws and we should not reward those who have ignored our laws with citizenship! I believe we need to send them all home including these anchor babies. Our borders need to be secure whatever it takes. If our immigration laws need reworking, rework them but don’t let anyone get around the law. We cannot afford to throw open the door to anyone who wants to come here, we do not have the resources to absorb all of these folks with all of their needs. I am not a mean person but we’ve got to be realistic about this. I realize others live in tough surroundings but we can’t fix all these problems. Now, for those of you who say ” Oh, this the USA, a nation of immigrations, blah, blah, blah, put a sock in it, I for one am not moved by that reasoning. If it weren’t for our welfare programs these folks wouldn’t be coming here anyway.
That boogeyman is costing over $570 annually per citizen of North Carolina. My child’s 7th grade class in Rockingham County (Nc) is copying notes on to numbered worksheets so that the school doesn’t have to supply multi-lingual text books. Oddly enough, the school can afford tablets to accommodate 35 students at a time. Every year, I see Hispanic children walk into school wearing Holister and carrying IPhones with no bookbag and the school sends them home fully equipped with supplies. Why do you think the request 50 pencils that your kids runs out of in a week? How can we say that illegal immigration has not affected our academic institutions?!
Besides the dwindling resources, employment oppertunities are most certainly affected. How can we pretend that illegals are doing jobs that Americans don’t want when any time a single position opens up, hundreds of people stand in line to apply?! They must all be illegal, huh?
If we look at things on a micro level, it makes a lot more sense. Our branches of government are like our parents and citizens are like their children, as we obey or face the consequences of disobeying our governed laws. You care for your kids, including the adopted ones (legal immigrants), before you give money to your relatives (illegals currently in the US). Then, if there’s any left, you help your neighbor (newly arriving illegals). America can’t even feed her blood relatives!
To all of the people saying, “We were all immigrants. The bible says…” Why don’t you go down to your nearest Walmart parking lot tonight and offer your couch as amnesty to the first person who says their household was full of violence and drugs so they had to live on the street? Better yet, give them your bed because that’s what America is doing for illegal invaders