Importing Poverty

IMPORTING POVERTY

by James Hopkins

http://importing-poverty.blogspot.com/

Illegal immigration is just as bad for our economy as shipping jobs overseas. It is importing poverty and taking jobs away from the poor and the middle-class Americans. If illegal aliens want to reside in the United States, they should first be forced to return to their country of origin and go to the end of the line. To hurt our economy even more, illegal aliens have sent over 200 billion U.S. dollars back home since 1996.

It is said that legal workers aren't willing to do many of the jobs given to illegal aliens. The fact of the matter is that these are jobs which Americans used to do and still would do if they were offered viable wages. However, illegal aliens coming directly from poverty are used to working for peanuts and are willing to accept much lower pay than the average American. The average middle-class worker would have to stoop down, lowering their living standards in order to accept such wages that the illegal alien accepts.

A construction company that hired a truckload of illegal aliens could easily place a much lower bid for a contract than a company that hired U.S. citizens. Because of this, more and more middle-class workers are being forced into poverty, accepting lower wages and fewer benefits. In a 1997 study, the National Research Council found that illegal immigration depresses wages for many lower-income workers by as much as 5 percent in 15 years.

It must also be acknowledged that 50 percent of illegal aliens are ex-guest workers here on expired visas. Our federal government knows this, yet refuses to do anything about it. If illegal immigrants were not offered jobs here, few of them would have reason to immigrate. Our governments at all levels need to follow the example set by Hazelton, Pennsylvania. They need to crack down on employers who hire illegal aliens, and deny all social services to illegal aliens.

There is no need for the United States to track down all of these illegal aliens. The way to put a stop to illegal immigration is to simply make it impossible for illegal aliens to find work here.
In addition to employment, illegal immigrants get a number of other perts including, but not limited to, free medical treatment, food stamps, schooling, and WIC. It is the taxpayers who end up paying for all of this. If and when illegal aliens get arrested, it's taxpayers who pay for their court services and imprisonment. Whatever illegal immigration might possibly do for the U.S. economy is easily outweighed by the burden it puts on taxpayers (over $20 billion annually).

If a parent commits a crime and goes to jail, their children don't serve as a free ticket out of jail. Likewise, anchor babies shouldn't be accepted as a pass for their parent(s) to stay here legally in the United States. As stated in the 14th amendment, "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States."

What is so very often ignored is the emphasized text in the amendment above which when correctly interpreted means "with respect to any and all applicable laws" which in this case would refer to the parent(s) of an anchor baby being here in the United States illegally at the time of it's birth. This alone voids any automatic citizenship on the grounds that the mother is here illegally, making the child's birth illegal here in the United States. In addition, any illegal alien mother does not hold full allegiance to the United States and is subject to the jurisdiction of her native country, as is the child.

Amnesty is not acceptable. Amnesty just leads to more amnesty. This fact, unfortunately, has been proven time and again. If amnesty were given, most illegal aliens would become unskilled legal immigrants, having access to even more government programs, yet paying very little tax because of their low income. "If illegal aliens were given amnesty and began to pay taxes and use services like households headed by legal immigrants with the same education levels, the estimated annual net fiscal deficit would increase from $2,700 per household to nearly $7,700, for a total net cost of $29 billion."

If we want to continue anywhere near our present living standards and keep from turning into a third-world country, we cannot afford to continue importing poverty. Contact your Congressman and Senators today, and let them know where you stand on illegal immigration.