Myth #1: We need illegal immigration to be competitive in the global economy (or: Illegal immigration is good for the U.S. economy).
Response: Success in the global economy is based on knowledge and skills. This explains why U.S. immigration policy has historically favored skilled workers over unskilled workers (with the result that nonagricultural immigrant workers were on average more skilled than native workers). Importing low-skilled, uneducated workers is bad for the economy and also contradicts the state’s current educational policies, which emphasize the attainment of job skills and a college education. Most important, the foundation of a strong economy is respect for the law.
Myth #2: Illegal immigrants are a necessary part of North Carolina's workforce.
Response: As of December 2007, 226,300 (seasonally adjusted) workers were unemployed in North Carolina. This number does not include thousands of working-age residents who are not counted as part of the civilian labor force because they are not looking for a full-time job. Shouldn’t we find jobs for these people before we hand over their jobs to illegal aliens? Historically, tight labor markets have stimulated investment and led to gains in productivity for the U.S. economy.
Myth #3: Illegal immigrants only do the jobs Americans won’t do (or: Illegals don’t really take jobs from American workers).
Response: Between 2000 and 2004, 100 percent of the net increase in the number of employed civilians went to new foreign born workers. During the same period, the number of employed natives declined. Similarly, Harvard economist George Borjas found that between 1980 and 2000 immigration reduced the average annual earnings of native born men by $1,700. During the 1980s, the poorest of workers saw a 14 percent drop in wages while those in the top percentile saw a 1 percent increase. Another study by Borjas found that from 1960 to 2000 black high school dropouts saw their employment rate fall from 88.6 percent to 55.7 percent. For black dropouts in their twenties, employment rates are even lower: 28 percent for 2004. This is compared to 66 percent for whites and 81 percent for Hispanics.
Myth #4: Cracking down on illegal immigration would destroy North Carolina’s agricultural sector.
Response: A report by economists at the Iowa State University found that ending U.S. reliance on illegal agricultural workers would increase the average price of fruits and vegetables by less than 1 percent. And part of this price increase is attributable to resulting wage increases for U.S. workers that would increase demand for fruits and vegetables. Reliance on cheap labor hurts U.S. agricultural productivity because it removes the incentive to mechanize.
Myth #5: We should permit illegal immigration because we have an obligation to help the poor.
Response: Mexico enjoys the 12th largest economy in the world (measured by GDP). Some 4.9 billion people live in countries poorer than Mexico. Even if we accept that U.S. immigration policy should be devoted to aiding the poor, this requires limiting immigration from relatively wealthy countries like Mexico – in short, it requires securing our borders. But what about the poor in the United States? As indicated above, illegal immigration leads to lower wages and fewer jobs for natives. If you want to help the poor, stop illegal immigration.
Myth #6: Controlling immigration requires deporting millions of people.
Response: Americans are not going to support mass deportation. The good news is that deporting millions of illegal immigrants is not necessary. Once we begin to enforce the law and remove the incentives that encourage illegals to come to the United States, they will begin to self-deport. This is precisely what happened in the Pakistani community after 9/11. For every Pakistani actually deported under the NSEERS program, 10 more left voluntarily.
Myth #7: People who oppose illegal immigration are racist.
Response: U.S. immigration law does not discriminate on the basis of race or national origin. We are talking about applying the law equally. By contrast, advocates of illegal immigration do not wish to enforce the law equally. Is this fair? Why are American citizens obliged to obey the law, but illegal immigrants aren’t? While previous waves of immigrants – primarily those from certain European countries and Asia (immigration from countries within the Western Hemisphere was not generally subject to quotas) – did face opposition and discrimination in the past, these immigrants were legal immigrants. This issue is not about race or even immigration, but about the law, preserving the culture of law that is vital to the preservation of democracy. Note also that “illegal alien” is a legal term – not a racist term. It is how Title 8 of the U.S. Code refers to those aliens (foreign nationals) who are in the United States illegally.
Myth #8: The flipside of the accusation that opposition to illegal immigration is racist is the assertion that illegal immigrants are morally superior in some way to native Americans. Thus we have the myth of the “redemptive Hispanic” who works harder than the average American and who prizes family above all things. In turn we hear that most illegal immigrants are good hard-working people who only want to support their families.
Response: Illegal immigrants are criminals. They have broken U.S. law. In order to work in the United States, many illegals break the law again by stealing an American citizen’s identity. Likewise, it is a myth that Hispanics have stronger families than U.S. natives. Nearly half of the children born to Hispanic mothers in the United States are born out of wedlock. Likewise, Hispanic women have the highest unwed birthrate in the United States: nearly 50 percent higher than for blacks and three times higher than whites.
Myth #9: Immigration is a federal problem. North Carolina can’t do anything about it.
Response: Governor Mike Easley (D) made this argument while explaining why he thinks illegal immigrants should be eligible for a publicly subsidized college education. Yet, we don’t take the same approach regarding other important policy issues: education, healthcare, transportation, the environment. Imagine Governor Easley saying we don’t need to pass laws against pollution because the Environmental Protection Agency is already working on this issue. Prior to the late 1800s the states possessed almost exclusive control over immigration policy and continue to play a significant role in this area, especially as it relates to welfare and education benefits, employment practices and law enforcement.
Myth #10: Illegal immigration is necessary to prevent the Social Security and Medicaid systems from running out of money.
Response: According to the Center for Immigration Studies, the average age of immigrants (both legal and illegal) in the United States is “40.5 years compared to 35.9 years for the average native.” The average age of new arrivals (since 2000) is 29.4 years. All this is to say that immigration will have little positive impact on the elderly-dependency ratio or on the viability of Social Security. Thus the Social Security Advisory Board cautions that while the “entry of immigrants and their fertility rates will have some mitigating effect on the overall aging of the population,” the impact “is likely to be very slight.”
Myth #11: Illegal aliens contribute more in taxes than they use in benefits.
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