The Quote Below—More Misinformation from the Media
“If members of Congress are truly being honest about their willingness to find a solution and work with colleagues on this issue, then why is nothing getting done? How many more years will it take for Congress to come together and pass comprehensive immigration reform?
“Because reform isn’t just about doing what’s morally right. It’s about doing what’s smart to grow our economy. This country needs immigrants.
“As the population ages and people have fewer children, newcomers are needed to pay taxes that support programs like Medicare and Social Security. We should be encouraging young immigrants to stay here, build lives, buy homes, enroll in school, work and raise children who will also eventually contribute to our communities. That’s especially true in slow-growing Iowa. . . .
“Comprehensive immigration reform would put an end to the executive orders, court battles and policy whiplash that make it difficult for DREAMers to move forward in life with certainty.
“It would be a victory for all of us, an accomplishment to celebrate each Independence Day.” — Congress Should Exercise Its Independence: Pass immigration Reform and Provide Help for DREAMers, Des Moines Register, Editorial. 7/2/20 [Link]
Fact Check on Quote Above: This editorial focuses on what it sees as the need to grant amnesty to illegal aliens in the DACA category. At the same time it urges “comprehensive immigration reform,” a phrase immigration advocates often use to refer to amnesty and a path to citizenship for all illegal aliens in the U.S. Also, it usually means a significant increase in legal immigration, which is now at the highest sustained level in U.S. history.
The editorial states that “this country needs immigrants” because America is aging and “newcomers are needed to pay taxes that support programs like Medicare and Social Security.” Immigration advocates commonly push this idea that immigration can significantly increase the number of working age Americans. The real statistics, however, show otherwise.
The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) notes that “Immigration [has] had a small impact on the working-age share because immigrants arrive at all ages, grow older over time, and have children, so they added to both the working-age and those too old or too young to work in nearly equal proportions.”
Immigration since 1990, says CIS, “[has] only increased the working-age (16-64) share of the population from 63.9 percent to 64.4 percent in 2017.” Even if the level of immigration since 1990 had been twice as large as it was, the working age population today would only be 64.8 percent.
Another point to consider is that legal and illegal immigrant households, as shown by a study by the Heritage Foundation, use more money in taxes than they contribute. Therefore, they will not be net sustainers of our social programs.
This editorial claims that “We should be encouraging young immigrants to stay here, build lives, buy homes, etc.” Actually, we should be doing these things for our own native-born citizens. They face many difficulties, one being the competition for jobs from immigrants. With more economic opportunities, our younger citizens might be able to have more children. The writer of the editorial might consider that it’s “the morally right thing” for a country to put its own citizens first.