More Misinformation from the Media:
According to new research released by the Partnership for a new American Economy, immigrant-led households here in Mississippi earned $1.3 billion in income and paid more than $357 million into our tax system in 2014. Those tax contributions support local schools and government programs important to Mississippians. . . . Further, there’s a growing supply of lucrative science, technology, engineering and mathematics jobs in the United States. . . . Yet our universities are not graduating the number of students needed to fill these positions. We need foreign-born candidates to help plug the shortfall. — US, Mississippi Need Immigration Reform, John N. Palmer, Clarion Ledger, 8/2/16
Fact Check: Immigration advocates like to cite figures showing that immigrants pay large sums in taxes. But that really isn’t significant unless we also know how much they consume in tax-paid benefits. If contributions exceed consumption, they are providing a net fiscal benefit. If consumption exceeds, contributions, they are a net liability.
Three years ago the Heritage Foundation did a study to measure nationwide what immigrants, on average, are paying in taxes, and the average total of what they’re taking in benefits. It found that the average household of legal immigrants imposes a net liability of $4,344 on society, and that for illegal immigrants the liability tab comes to $14,387 per household.
One reason is high welfare usage among immigrants. A study by the Center for Immigration Studies found that in 2012, 51 percent of immigrant-headed households (legal and illegal) used at least one welfare program, compared with 30 percent of native-headed households. Robert Rector one of the authors of the Heritage study once observed that U.S. immigration policy is significantly one of “importing poverty.”
The claim that we aren’t graduating enough students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics ignores the fact that the majority of American graduates in these fields work in other occupations. American companies avoid hiring them because they prefer foreigners on temporary visas. They can pay them less than Americans and make them put up with working conditions that American employees would not tolerate. The companies propagate the shortage myth to conceal their preference. The media, most commonly, are more than happy to help them.