The Immigration Debate: Myths vs. Facts

MYTH: Illegal immigrants are dangerous criminals.

FACT: Immigrants have a lower crime rate than native-born citizens.

“Numerous studies by independent researchers and government commissions over the past 100 years repeatedly and consistently have found that, in fact, immigrants are less likely to commit crimes or to be behind bars than are the native-born. This is true for the nation as a whole, as well as for cities with large immigrant populations such as Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, and Miami, and cities along the U.S.-Mexico border such as San Diego and El Paso.
That immigration does not automatically lead to higher crime rates is evident in the fact that crime rates have fallen in the United States at the same time immigration has increased. Since the early 1990s, immigration to the United States - both legal and undocumented - has reached historic highs. Yet rates of violent crime and property crime have declined sharply over the same period, and the violent crime rate has reached historic lows. Moreover, among men age 18-39 (who comprise the vast majority of the prison population), the incarceration rate of the native-born is much higher than the incarceration rate of the foreign-born.

Immigrants in every ethnic group in the United States have lower rates of crime and imprisonment than do the native born. This is true for all immigrant groups - including the Mexicans, Salvadorans, and Guatemalans who comprise most of the undocumented immigrants in the country. Even though immigrants from these countries are far more likely than natives to have less than a high-school education and to live in poverty, they are far less likely to be behind bars or to commit crimes. Moreover, teenage immigrants are much less likely than native-born adolescents to engage in risk behaviors such as delinquency, violence, and substance abuse that often lead to imprisonment…”  Read more

MYTH: Immigrants steal American jobs.

FACT: Immigrants create jobs and bolster the economy.

“The White House’s Council of Economic Advisers, concludes that foreign-born workers have accounted for about half of labor force growth in the past decade, fueling overall economic output, creating jobs and increasing earnings for native-born workers by as much as $80 billion a year…” Read more

The Migration Policy Institute did a report in August 2007 discussing the increasingly pro-immigrant policies of labor unions.  Read more

The Heritage Foundation report on immigration in the U.S. issued in June does not account for the economic impact that all workers have through their consumer purchasing power and entrepreneurship, both of which create new jobs, and overlooks the value added to the U.S. economy by industries in which less-skilled workers tend to be employed.  The buying power of Hispanics in the United States totaled $798 billion in 2006 and is expected to increase to $1.2 trillion by 2011.  The Commerce Department estimates that nondurable-goods manufacturing (textiles, apparel, etc.) added $685.5 billion to the U.S. GDP in 2006, while construction added $647.9 billion and accommodation and food services contributed $349.9 billion. Read more

According to a recent study by the University of Arizona, if all undocumented workers were removed from Arizona’s workforce, economic output would drop annually by at least $29 billion, or 8.2 percent.  In Arizona alone, non-citizen immigrants are in high demand adding $6.56 billion in construction output, $3.77 billion in manufacturing, $2.48 billion in service sectors, and $600.9 million in agriculture.  Read more

Foreign medical graduates and high-tech workers are also in high demand in the United States. Unlike in Britain, in which the process is under review, skilled workers go through extensive background checks before being admitted.  Read more

MYTH: Anti-immigrant groups support rights of legal immigrants.

FACT: Anti-immigrant groups commonly oppose improvements to our legal immigration system.

Anti-immigrant groups want to restrict the number of legal visas issued.  On the “Americans for Legal Immigration Reform” website, they discourage people from signing an Immigrants’ List’s petition to uphold the rights of legal immigrants to obtain I-485 adjustment of status petitions.  Read more

Jobs are being exported abroad because of the ineptitude of our current immigration system.  “Unable to meet its hiring needs because of U.S. immigration policy, [Microsoft] is opening an office in Vancouver…hiring several hundred software wizards to help develop new products. Instead of landing at the Redmond, Wash., mother ship, however, the new workers will toil in Vancouver, British Columbia. Here’s why, according to the company’s news release: “The Vancouver area is a global gateway with a diverse population, is close to Microsoft’s corporate offices in Redmond and allows the company to recruit and retain highly skilled people affected by immigration issues in the U.S…” Read more

Reform measures to increase the visa numbers to attract those who will benefit our economy, would enable us to better compete on a global scale. On the website of Dan Stein, spokesman for an anti-immigrant group which considers fair immigration reform to be mass deportations and restricting visa numbers, there was an article ridiculing the export of high-tech jobs to India. However, if we enabled educated, high-tech workers to legally come to our country to fill these high-demand jobs, they would create more domestic economic growth. Unfortunately, poor logic only masks the racism behind the anti-immigrant viewpoint.

MYTH: Building a wall along our Southern border is necessary to keep out the terrorists.

FACT: The 9/11 hijackers entered the US legally.

The 9/11 hijakers all entered the United States legally, as did those who attacked Fort Dix.  Forty-percent of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants entered the US legally but overstayed their visas.  We must have a plan to separate those who come here to provide for their families from the few who wish to do us harm.  Providing a pathway to legal status with background checks for hard working immigrants is the only way the Department of Homeland Security will be able to weed out those who remain in the shadows.

The people seeking to come to America from our South come with the primary mission of better providing for their families.  Immigrants come to work hard and contribute to our economy.  They send money home which far exceeds any direct U.S. foreign aid issued by our government.

According to the LA Times, “The United States’ biggest foreign aid program is not the $19 billion that it sends through official aid channels (0.14% of GDP) worldwide. Instead, it is the employment it provides for the many millions of illegal immigrants in the U.S. from the Third World, mainly Latin America. The earnings of these migrants, which some estimate at more than $200 billion a year, easily dwarf the official U.S. aid contributions. Furthermore, the remittances these immigrants send back to relatives in their home countries - more than $25 billion annually just to Mexico, according to the World Bank - far outweigh official aid.” Read more

Their mission is not to harm, but unfortunately, there is a vociferous minority who does not want to share the American Dream with these hard working people.

MYTH: Illegal immigrants don’t pay taxes and drain our government.

FACT: Most immigrants pays taxes and do not get to collect government benefits.

The 12 million undocumented immigrants in the United States, who comprise nearly one-third of all immigrants in the country, are not eligible for public benefits. According to the New York Times, “Illegal immigrants are pumping the Social Security system with as much as $7 billion a year and contributing to Medicare in payroll taxes, yet they are unable to collect on the benefits…Starting in the late 1980’s, the Social Security Administration received a flood of W-2 earnings reports with fake Social Security numbers. It stashed them in what it calls the “earnings suspense file” in the hope that someday it would figure out whom they belonged to…$189 billion worth of wages ended up recorded in the suspense file over the 1990’s…”  Read more

The Washington Post reports,“Immigrants and their children also have a “modest positive influence” on government spending…contributing about $80,000 more per person in tax dollars over the long run than they claim in government benefits and services…”  Read more

A report issued by the Immigration Policy Center claims, “Unlike most Americans, who will receive some form of a public pension in retirement and will be eligible for Medicare as soon as they turn 65, illegal immigrants are not entitled to benefits. Legal permanent residents must pay into the Social Security and Medicare systems for approximately 10 years before they are eligible to receive benefits when they retire.  Read more