Illegal Immigrant Workers Do More Harm Than Good
By Robert Klein Engler (12/16/04)
Many employers mistakenly believe there is nothing wrong with hiring illegal immigrants to work in the U. S., especially illegal immigrants from Mexico. These employers contend that, "Illegal Mexicans are hard workers and they improve our way of life." This argument may be based on personal experience, but it is not the greater truth based on facts. When seen from a broader, national perspective, illegal immigrant workers do more harm to U. S. society than they do good.
Most people have the personal experience of seeing the sun rise and set. Nevertheless, if asked to explain our experience of sunrise and sunset, most people today would say that such an experience is an illusion. If we learn astronomy or travel far enough above the earth, then we see that the earth rotates on its axis, giving the impression that the sun moves above us.
Likewise, if we become familiar with the data about illegal immigration to the U. S., then we have to conclude that the personal experience of a hard working and low paid illegal, Mexican immigrant helping to improve our society is an illusion. When seen on a national scale, the impact of illegal immigration from Mexico is more harmful than beneficial. Illegal immigration from Mexico is not a sunrise or the dawning of a new business day, instead it is a revolution that turns to disaster.
Although it may seem to those who hire illegal immigrants that no harm is being done to the nation, the increasing number of low paid immigrants in the U. S. means, among other things, increasing taxes for welfare payments. A Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) report states that, "Not only do immigrants use welfare programs at higher rates than natives, their use of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is also substantially higher than that of natives... Persons receiving the EITC pay no federal income tax and instead receive cash assistance from the government..."
The CIS report goes on to say, "Mexican use of means-tested programs remains high even after welfare reform. Despite welfare reform and a strong economy in the latter half of the 1990s ...immigrants in general and Mexican households in particular use every major means-tested program at higher rates than natives. Mexican households...use of TANF/general assistance, food stamps, Medicaid, and the subsidized school lunch program is dramatically higher than households headed by natives."
The Federation for American Immigration Reform adds more evidence to why illegal immigrant workers are harmful in the long term to U. S. society. (FAIR) sums up a report by the National Academy of Science on immigration this way: "Immigration is the driving force behind rapid population growth, immigration has a negative impact on lower-skilled, less-educated Americans, immigration is exacerbating the wealth gap, immigration has contributed to the increase in high school dropouts, immigrant-headed households use more in government services than they contribute in state and local taxes, and immigration is a substantial tax burden to native households, especially in states with large immigrant populations..."
Writing about the cost of illegal immigration in a recent issue of Fortune magazine, senior editor Geoffrey Colvin echoes many of the NAS conclusions. Colvin writes, "This is big trouble for a couple of reasons, the first being simple economics. Illegal immigrants don't pay taxes but do consume government services, especially medical care and education."
Colvin adds, "The full economic effects are much wider. Employers who hire illegals pay them cash and thus evade employment taxes. They may also not report revenue from the work the illegals do and thus evade income taxes. Companies that compete with these employers must cut their own costs, mostly by paying their own workers (regardless of status) lower cash wages under the table, and the tax evasion spreads further."
By some estimates, services to illegal immigrants will cost the state of Illinois $500 million a year. This is in a state that faces a budget crisis similar to the one in California. The Migration Policy Institute estimates that there are over 500,000 illegal immigrants living in Illinois. Many of them are getting welfare payments of one kind or another.
Furthermore, FAIR reports that, "Illinois authorities requested compensation of $36.4 million from the federal government for the incarceration of illegal aliens in state and local jails and prisons in FY '99 (under the federal State Criminal Alien Assistance Program, or SCAAP), but it received only $14 million in compensation, leaving $22.4 million in uncompensated costs to be borne by Illinois taxpayers." In 2005, all these costs will increase.
Don't be fooled by those who say the cheap labor of illegal immigrants comes cheaply. A $20 meal in downtown Chicago, with 9% tax and 15% tip will cost you about $25. Residents and tourists to Chicago alike are already paying not only to eat but to subsidize the illegal Mexican busboy who makes $5 an hour and cleans the table after they leave it.
In the short term, a rancher in Texas or a restaurant owner in Chicago may win by employing low paid and illegal immigrants from Mexico. Yet, in the long term, our country as a whole loses by the presence of these illegal workers. One by one, like the incessant drip of water into a bucket, a quantitative increase in the numbers of illegal immigrants produces a qualitative change in the nation. It doesn't take long for the bucket or the nation to overflow.
Those who argue for open borders are like those who believe the sun actually rises and sets. Personal experience may show them illegal immigrants who work hard, but from a larger national perspective, we see that more harm than good is done by employing these illegal immigrants. In the long term, secure borders, deportation and sound immigration policies are best for our nation. To these ends, employers should put patriotism before profits.
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