Here are some facts to consider:
Top 10 Immigration Myths As the U.S. immigration debate rhetoric becomes more shrill, separating fact from fiction can be a challenge
By: Alex Valdes
- ‘Mexican’ equals ‘Illegal’
There are more than 18 million immigrants from Mexico in the U.S., but only 6 million of those – 33 percent – are undocumented.
Illegal immigrants come from all over the globe, with virtually all the attention focused on Mexico. However, nearly one half of all undocumented people in the U.S. are from regions besides Mexico. The Pew Hispanic Center says that 22 percent are from other Latin American countries, 13 percent from Asia, 6 percent from Europe and Canada combined, and 3 percent from Africa and elsewhere.
- They are draining the economy
Illegal immigrants do pay the same taxes as everyone else: sales tax, income tax, Social Security tax and even property tax, which is figured into rent payments.
As for Social Security tax, many illegal immigrants use fake numbers to get jobs, and even though money is taken out of their paychecks, they will never get that money back. The so-called “earnings suspense file,” i.e. taxes that cannot be matched to workers’ names and SSNs, is growing by an average of more than $50 billion a year, generating $6 billion to $7 billion in Social Security tax revenue and about $1.5 billion in Medicare taxes, according to the Social Security Administration.
- They don’t want to learn English
“Latinos want to learn English, because they need it for their jobs,” she says. “If they don’t learn, it’s not because they don’t want to, it’s because they don’t have time because of work and taking care of their kids.”
George Mason University’s Mercatus Center cites 2000 Census data that says only 2.5 percent of American residents are Spanish-only speakers, and the majority of residents of Spanish-speaking households speak English “very well.”
- Immigrants ruin American culture
“We come here and live the way we want,” she says. “We don’t tell them how to live. How can we be ruining their lifestyle? If we start to try to be like them, then we would take over their heritage. We’re here, but we don’t want to take away their way of life.”
- They take jobs from Americans
University of California at Berkeley economist David Card, in his study “Is the New Immigration Really So Bad?” (January 2005), concluded that there is scant “evidence that immigrants have harmed the opportunities of less educated natives” and that “the wage gap between dropouts and high school graduates has remained nearly constant since 1980, despite supply pressure from immigration.”
Immigrants from Mexico fill many jobs Americans won’t do. Luna’s husband, Don Fernando, worked the fields in California starting when he was 14, and Luna herself has done her share of grueling work, including housekeeping, fast food and dishwashing.
- A tough border keeps out illegals
But ending illegal immigration from Mexico is probably impossible, says Jose Juarez, a union organizer for the Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters in Kent.
“As long as the United States has a need for workers, they will come,” he said. “The government is wasting money with the wall and the National Guard (at the border). They can say they’ll stop them from coming, but I don’t think they can as long as there is work.
- Immigrants increase risk of terrorism
“People try to make a connection with 9/11, and they see a terrific risk of terrorists pouring over the border,” Neiwert says. “But none of the 9/11 terrorists came from Mexico. The only terrorist to cross over a land border was Ahmed Ressam, and he was coming from Canada.
“The Canadian border is much longer than the Mexican border [3,987 miles versus 1,933 miles], and is significantly less secure. There are much longer stretches of wild places, wilderness where you can slip into the U.S. But the reality is that terrorists who come here are going to get fake documents and fly into JFK.”
Dennis Griswold, associate director of the Center for Trade Policy Studies at the libertarian Cato Institute, says “the 19 terrorists who attacked the United States on Sept. 11 did not apply to the INS to immigrate or to become U.S. citizens. Like most aliens who enter the United States, they were here on temporary tourist and student visas. We could reduce the number of immigrants to zero and still not stop terrorists from slipping into the country on non-immigrant visas.”
- The U.S. is a land of opportunity
The “Horatio Alger myth” – named for the 19th-Century author whose books depict rags-to-riches stories in which poor young boys achieve the “American dream” through hard work and guts – is deeply ingrained in our society.
It’s a fable also applied to immigrants, but doesn’t take into account barriers they face: working multiple low-paying jobs to survive, lack of English, being away from their culture, and racism and ethnocentrism.
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