The Quote Below—More Misinformation from the Media
“Clashes over immigration and control of the U.S. border have already figured prominently in the battle for the presidency. A better policy is certainly needed. . . .
“But as the arguments continue, it would be good to keep one thing in mind: The vast majority of immigrants — including those arriving under the existing ill-suited arrangements — will prove to be national assets, not liabilities. On balance, they’ll boost the economy and help mend the country’s broken public finances. Although policy can and should be improved, the goal shouldn’t be throttling the supply of foreign workers.
“A recent report from the Congressional Budget Office sheds some light on the issue. It looks at what it calls the recent “immigration surge” of people entering the U.S., not counting those with lawful-immigrant or temporary-worker status. The number of these irregular or ‘other foreign national’ arrivals — people who entered the U.S. illegally or overstayed their temporary status, ‘parolees’ awaiting court proceedings, those granted temporary protected status or ‘deferred action,’ and others — expanded enormously after 2020, from an average of about 200,000 a year to roughly 1.7 million a year. By 2026, the CBO projects a total increase of 8.7 million, compared with the pre-2020 trend. . . .
“The surge after 2020 is projected to add $1.2 trillion to federal revenue over the next decade — about as much as raising all tax rates on personal income by 1 percentage point. This is mostly because in time the arrivals work and pay taxes, and because a bigger labor force boosts economic growth, adding to others’ incomes and taxes. Gross domestic product goes up by $9 trillion, thanks to the bigger population, higher labor-force participation among the arrivals and higher productivity. Federal spending is projected to rise by about $300 billion, as the arrivals and their children qualify for benefits.
“Make no mistake, the failure to control the border, and the stress on local communities forced to cope with a disorderly influx of people, is lamentable and needs to be fixed. But the claim that even a mismanaged surge of migrants imposes a net financial burden on the economy and its taxpayers is false. The main lesson is that the gains from a better, smarter, well-managed pro-immigration policy would indeed be huge.” Needed Better Immigration Policy, More Immigrants, Editorial, Bloomberg, 10/14/24 [Link]
Fact Check of Above Quote: This editorial assures us that the “vast majority” of illegal aliens coming our way will become “national assets.” If this is the case, we should forget border control and toss out the welcome mat to invite all the impoverished billions of the world to more here. Surely, they would become “national assets” as well. That’s absurd, of course. It can only make sense if you look at life through a narrow lens which excludes most of reality.
In this case, it’s the notion that a bigger population, by gross domestic product, always brings greater national prosperity. But if that were the case, populous Bangladesh would be a lot more prosperous than Switzerland. The correct measure of prosperity is per capita income, not the gross domestic product.
The wealth of a country, to a large extent, depends on its culture and the talents and skills of its citizens. When we permit illegal immigration we have no control over the people who come will be beneficial or not. Many come from dysfunctional cultures, and they will bring their dysfunctional values with them. Also, the illegal aliens now are less educated than the American average. This means that they have to take lower paying jobs, which often make them eligible for welfare and other public benefits. Contrary to the claim this article, illegal aliens receive more in tax-paid benefits than they pay in taxes.
If immigration is really such an economic boon, how can immigration advocates explain what happened to California, the state with the highest percentage and number of immigrants (legal and illegal). Before mass immigration, it had a vibrant middle-class economy, as well as first-class public amenities. Today, it resembles a Third World society with a few very wealthy people at the top and masses of not very well-off people at the bottom. Millions of Americans have fled this increasingly dysfunctional state.
Immigration advocates don’t seem to notice (or care about) what has happened in California—and to varying degrees in the rest of the country. They will continue to push mass immigration, legal and illegal, as long as this surge, in the words of Bloomberg, is not too “disorderly.” That might awaken citizens to the peril they face.