“Historically speaking, we’re living through an immigration wave approaching levels we haven’t seen since the 1890s.
“If you’ve been following the news and watching the debates (as I have), it can be hard to zero in on Trump and Harris’ specific policy differences on this issue.”
Are we joking here?
Trump has a commonsense policy: no illegal entry, a secure border, deportation of illegals.
Harris has a ludicrous policy: open borders, unlimited amnesty, illegal voter registration, literal app based no-vetting immigration applications, and defended border patrol.
HOW anyone can say they followed this presidential election and can’t see the glaring differences is beyond me. Like a blind taste test between water and bleach. “I jUSt cAn’T SPoT tHe dIFFeREnCe.”
Here are some critical facts underpinning the need for a secure border and rapid deportation of illegal immigrants.
1. 59% of Households headed by an illegal immigrant use one or more welfare programs compared to 39% of native headed households.
2. Illegal Immigrant headed households make higher use of the earned income tax credit (EITC), special supplemental nutrition program for women infants and children (WIC), free or reduced price school meals, Medicaid, and food stamps. They cost these programs a combined $42 billion per year.
3. In the majority of states, low-income pregnant women can enroll in Medicaid regardless of legal status. In other words, not only can you come have your anchor baby, but US tax payers will fund the medical costs to do so.
4. The impact of illegal labor on legal labor: in 1960, only 7% of native born men age 20–64 with no education beyond high school were out of the labor force (meaning not even looking for a job anymore) whereas in 2023 that is 22%. In other words, it is most definitely that illegal immigrants are taking American jobs, not doing jobs Americans won’t. The surge in illegal immigration from 1960 to today goes hand in hand with that decline in labor participation — and this is not apathetic college grads. These are working class people.
5. To the extent that illegal immigrants do pay taxes beyond sales tax, they underpay. While they pay in total $25.9 billion (remember they cost at least $42 billion already) in federal taxes, it doesn’t cover their costs. Illegal immigrants make up 4.5% of the labor force but their tax payments represent less than 1% of the taxes collected.
6. According to a comprehensive 2017 study by the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine each illegal immigrant in the US creates a lifetime fiscal drain on the nation of $68,390.
7. Illegal immigrants labor accounts for less than 2% of the US GDP. To the extent that they “add” to the economy, they effectively benefit only themselves since they are NOT entrepreneurs and their measured contribution to the GDP literally reflects their wages and benefits. By the way, since GDP counts government expenditure as a plus, that means that of the $300 billion value “added” to the GDP by illegals, the $42 billion annual cost of welfare programs is part of that. In other words, over 10% of that is actually a direct drain on Americans while the remainder is wage payment to illegals. In sum, they are lowering the GDP per capita, not enriching the country.
These facts all came from National Affairs Summer 2024, article titled The Cost of Illegal Immigration by Steven A. Camarota. The article does actually detail how even legal immigration is posing a huge drain thanks to our social welfare systems but that can fairly be blamed on us for having welfare at all. Meanwhile the irrefutable costs outlined above of illegals doesn’t even include their criminal costs, costs connected to human trafficking and threats of terrorism.
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