The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) is a stridently anti-immigration organization that wants to substantially decrease legal and unauthorized immigration to the United States. It frequently makes inaccurate claims about immigrants. Its most egregious economic claim is that unauthorized immigrants cost American state, local, and federal governments about $113 billion a year. This is pure bunk that I take to task here.
FAIR's evidence is detailed in its report, "The Fiscal Burden of Illegal Immigration on United States Taxpayers" by Jack Martin and Eric A. Ruark. Quite frankly, it is one of the most amateurish and error filled reports I've ever read. It ignores the fiscal benefits of unauthorized immigration and uses dubious numbers and poor methodology to reach its conclusions.
Every human activity has both costs and benefits. People constantly weigh costs and benefits. If a given action's benefits outweigh its costs, that action is worth taking - but you have to analyze both the costs and benefits first before you can come to that conclusion. The FAIR report counts the costs alone.
FAIR estimates that it costs states and the federal governments $52 billion a year to educate unauthorized immigrants and their American-born children. FAIR doesn't compare that figure with the increase in income that people experience after earning a high school degree or GED, about $7,208 over non-high school graduates. That's $7,208 more of taxable income. On top of that, between half and three-fourths of all undocumented immigrants file tax returns. The tax revenue gained from increasing education must be compared against the increased cost of public education when determining the net fiscal costs.
FAIR doesn't consider this because it stops counting the tax payments of the children of unauthorized immigrants by the time they graduate high school. Most children cost the government before the age of 18 because of our insanely expensive and ineffective public education system, so if you stop counting the costs and benefits of students by the time they reach 18, you'll reach the conclusion that children are always a fiscal loss for the government. If FAIR's reasoning were applied to the rest of society, it would never make fiscal sense to have children, and the quicker we stopped the better for the government's fiscal balance.
FAIR then ignores economic activity that produces tax revenue elsewhere. For instance, unauthorized immigrants purchase vast amounts of goods and services. Profits for those businesses, and hence tax revenues, would decrease if unauthorized immigrants were removed. Many unauthorized immigrants also own businesses, so if they were to be deported their businesses would either disappear or lie dormant until they could be taken over by others.
The supply of jobs is not fixed. It depends on prevailing wages, marginal productivity of labor, supply and demand for inputs for goods and services produced, and numerous other factors. FAIR simply assumes that native and unauthorized workers are perfectly interchangeable, so, as FAIR's reasoning goes, more deportations will just shift unemployed native workers into jobs formerly held by unauthorized immigrants. This is wrong for numerous reasons.
Almost all jobs left vacant by deported unauthorized immigrants will not be filled by legal American workers. Native-born and immigrant workers have different skills, strengths, and weaknesses that make them complementary rather than interchangeable. Most unauthorized immigrants have fewer skills than most native-born Americans, so the two groups generally work in different segments of the labor market. An unauthorized immigrant with poor English skills and less than a high school degree is not about to compete with a native-born American engineer for the same employment opportunity.
Deportations of otherwise peaceful people actually decrease the income of skilled American workers. The income of highly skilled Americans is increased when there are more low skilled workers because members of the two groups can work together. A civil engineer can produce more if there are additional lower skilled surveyors for him to work with.
FAIR also gets the numbers wrong. FAIR estimates that the number of undocumented children in Texas in 2005 was 61 percent greater than that estimated by Dr. Jeffrey Passel, the premier immigration demographer in the U.S. and supposed source for FAIR's claims.
On a national level, FAIR estimates that there are 4.7 million school aged children who would not be in schools without undocumented immigration--1.3 million unauthorized children and 3.4 million child citizens of unauthorized immigrants. But counting the 3.4 million child citizens as a cost of undocumented immigration is a methodology rejected by the Texas Comptroller's Office in estimating the costs of undocumented immigration to Texas schools. After all, if you count the first born generation of unauthorized immigrants as costs, why not also count all subsequent generations?
Furthermore, the real effect of U.S. deportation policies on families is to split them up, not move all members out of the U.S. As undocumented parents of American citizens are deported, numerous times their children are kept in the U.S. in foster care or with other relatives.
Estimating the fiscal costs and benefits of unauthorized immigration is very difficult. That doesn't mean it's not worth trying, but FAIR's report is not a serious effort. It takes a snapshot in time using dubious methodology without acknowledging that undocumented children grow up to become taxpayers.
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Hit the fields and Grow my Food you lazy Supremests!
You Crashed our Nation wuith your Hate and Deportations, now Get To Work!
To: Reality.
It is also absurd to state that low skilled workers cannot displace American ones, the prime examply being meatpacking in which they have driven wages down from $19/hr to about $9/hr over a ten year period. The Swift plant in CO that was raided and lost over 200+ illegals had to RAISE wages by $3/hr and they had legal workers lined up for those jobs. Try using some facts instead of speculation and poor logic.
I also do not believe it to be coincidence that the two countries that are struggling the most economically are those that have the biggest illegal immigration problems.
We only need to look at thr Fiscal State ouf our Economy prior to the January 2008 start of the I.C.E. Deportation of America's hardest and most Devoted "Human" Workers.
Every Stimulus Package, Bail out, Cash for Clunkers, Home Mortgage Plan, Jobs Bill, Automotive Bail Out, Wall Street Bail Out, Ect, by two Presidents now has occured entirely due to, and since the January 2008 start of I.C.E. Deportation Damage to America.
Fact is , the Hard Labor Immigrants gladly did for America was the Foundation of our once Strong Economy, and this Hard Labor supported All other American Jobs.
To: Liberty.
People can deny reality with supposed “truths” but that does not change reality. Our greatest unemployment is in the areas where Illegal Immigrants are most prevalent per the Pew Center; Farming, Construction, Transportation and Material Moving, Food Service, and Cleaning. Meanwhile, in jobs where Legal Immigrants are most prevalent unemployment rates are at their lowest per the BLS. But then Legal Immigration is still controlled. Thanks to excessive illegal immigration we are now returning to the low unskilled wage days of the Robber Barons.
Samuel Gompers, first AFL President: "Every effort to enact immigration legislation must expect to meet a number of hostile forces… One of these is composed of corporation employers who desire to employ physical strength (broad backs) at the lowest possible wage and who prefer a rapidly revolving labor supply at low wages to a regular supply of American wage earners at fair wages."
Time to take U.S. Citizenship to Mexico ~ making it the USA's 51st State, consider the benefits to the USA ~
Mexico ~ 11th richest economy of 193 nations in the world
Mexico ~ 7th largest producer of barrel oil in the world
Mexico ~ largest producer of Silver in the world
Mexico ~ June 2011, Unemployment Rate of 5.45%
Mexico ~ southern border with Guatemala only 550 miles long, instead of 1,956 miles
...............of existing USA border ~ Mexico is already constructing a border fence there
Mexico ~ largest drug producer / exporter in the world
Mexico ~ once acquired, legalize Marijuana & tax it for a profit ~ no need for drug cartels
Mexico ~ already sold 1/2 of Mexico to the U.S. Gov't in two separate land sale
. . . . . . . .1848 ~ Guadalupe-Hidalgo Treaty ~ $15 million USD
. . . . . . . .1853 ~ Gadsden Purchase ~ $10 million USD
Mexico ~ 95% of Mexican Nationals want free USA social benefits & U.S. Citizenship rights
Mexico ~ 110 million accustomed to $4.64 USD daily minimum wage
Mexico ~ 30% of all Mexican-born Nationals already live in the USA
Mexico ~ Saving of $21 billion USD annually not sent out of the U.S. Economy
Corruption, - just today there was a story on how over 100, fighting cocks, Two peacocks, prostitutes, drugs, ect were found in the MEXICO CITY JAIL. Add to that how city and provincial govt employees are in the pay of the familia's ect. That would be like a full blown Termite infection in a house. Short of burning down the house you would have to gut it and rebuild from the inside.
Infrastructure - Mexico has the worst infrastructure in North America, so we would have to rebuild half the roads, the electrical system and how many bridges,dams ect need extensive Maintenance?
Education - wha is the litericy rate in Mexico?
Before we start buying Mexico and rebuild it to be the 51st state, lets rebuild the other FIFTY STATES we already have.
Perhaps their figures are off, perhaps they are not. The fact remains these people are not Americans and not entitled to the rights and benefits of citizenship in the United States.
They are the citizens and subjects of foreign powers with civil rights in their own countries.
The "civil rights" argument is being blown out of the water by 16 Latin nations filing suit against South Carolina for their immigration law. http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/16-nations-challenge-sc-immigration-law-14909961#.Trny0fTiEe4
Another illustration of whose citizens these are is the tour of the various states that have passed immigration laws by Mexican senators to defend the rights of their citizens here without permission.
http://www.myfoxphoenix.com/dpp/news/immigration/GAImmigrationMexican-Senators-apx-11022011
No special rights to stay, work, settle down or raise a family are imparted by crossing the border. These countries are openly supporting their people's violation of our laws on our soil. If they want to sue they should do it in international court. They should have no standing here.
They have absolutely no right to defend their citizen's violation of our laws when their laws are much harsher than any of ours.
It is about time America said "NO!" to foreign interference in our domestic affairs.
We need to throw Mexico, it's media and it's ethnocentric social organizations out of the country.
The constitution gives the Feds only the authority to regulate foreign trade and naturalization. You woudl think that Obama as a constitutional law professor would at least know that!
Cannot trust them to be unbiased.
Your point as to why they are so bad?
U.S.? Look in the mirror.Maybe that's your problem.
The Nativist Lobby: Three Faces of Intolerance
FAIR, which Tanton founded and where he remains on the board, has been listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Among the reasons are its acceptance of $1.2 million from the Pioneer Fund, a group founded to promote the genes of white colonials that funds studies of race, intelligence and genetics. FAIR has also hired as key officials men who also joined white supremacist groups. It has board members who regularly write for hate publications. It promotes racist conspiracy theories about Latinos. And it has produced television programming featuring white nationalists.
http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/publications/the-nativist-lobby-three-faces-of-intolerance
watch the video
...That people like Russell Pearce and members of FAIR, Federation for American Immigration Reform have the platforms that they do and can shape legislation is chilling.
http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/2010/04/exposing-racist-roots-of-arizonas-new.html”
I do not support or condone HATE groups or White Supremacy groups, especially since I am an American Black man. But I do not and will not condone or accept illegal aliens, I am against any form of relief for them other than what current immigration law dictate. If American citizens must obey the laws (whether they agree or like them or not) then so must illegal aliens.
Apparently you feel the new standard is:
1. Can you breed a child here?
2. Can you marry a citizen?
3. Do you have anyone legally here who is a family member?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, congratulations you are the best we could hope for. Education is no longer important. Health is no longer important. Criminal history is no longer important.
You will never be considered under these new rules if you are:
1. Gay
2. Have developmental disabilities.
3. Have medical issues keeping you from breeding lots of kids.
4. Respect the laws of this country.
5. Have no family.
6. Are a badly needed and highly sought after doctor - sorry but you will need to breed first.
7. Are not attractive enough to find a mate.
Well at least that is what you said in fewer words merra!
Small Business Administration suggests that immigrants are more likely to start a business than are non‑immigrants: while they are only 12 percent of the U.S. population, immigrants represent 16.7 percent of all new business owners Immigrants own businesses in a variety of industries and make substantial contributions to both low-skilled and high-skilled sectors: 28.4 percent of businesses owned by those with less than a high school education are owned by immigrants, and 12 percent of businesses owned by those with a college education are owned by immigrants. ... immigrants own 10.8 percent of all firms with employees, providing job opportunities for thousands of Americans.
...some of the companies at the forefront of the digital revolution were co-founded by immigrants: Intel, Sun Microsystems, eBay, Google, and Yahoo to name a few examples. in ....in the wake of the recent recession as we look towards the private sector to find new opportunities for growth and to create new jobs for American workers.
Immigrants also play an important role in the economy by filling niches where the domestic supply of workers is limited. In many cases, these immigrants do not compete directly with other domestic workers, but instead complement the work of U.S.-born workers.
Immigrant workers also increase the affordability and availability of services such as child care, cleaning services, and gardening. http://www.treasury.gov/connect/blog/Pages/The-Many-Contributions-of-Immigrants-to-the-American-Economy.aspx
Too bad i read your BS and called you out on it.
Good night