Five reasons to grant amnesty to illegal immigrants
1. Immigration Is Good for the Economy
For all the rhetoric about immigrants stealing jobs, immigration actually provides a benefit to the national economy, whether those immigrants crossed the border legally or not. Why? Because of what economists call the specialization of labor. As Jonathan Hoenig, proprietor of the Capitalist Pig blog, explains: “The fact that foreigners are eager to pick crops, clean houses, bus tables and produce allows more of us to afford cheaper food and better services, affording us even more wealth to enjoy and invest. It’s not the immigrants, but the taxes, spending and entitlements (most of which immigrants don’t even receive) that have drained the economy dry.” …
2. Illegal Immigrants Already Pay Taxes
One of President Obama’s markers on the path to citizenship is “paying taxes,” but most illegal immigrants already do so. As Reason Foundation Senior Analyst Shikha Dalmia has reported, in 2006 an estimated 8 million illegal immigrants—up to two thirds of the total—paid taxes, including both income taxes and Medicare and Social Security taxes. Indeed, revenue from illegal immigrants is estimated at $11 billion a year to Social Security alone, and there’s not even a pretense of those payments leading to eventual benefits. And of course everyone who buys things in the U.S. pays sales taxes, irrespective of their immigration status. Undoubtedly, even more illegal immigrants would pay taxes if they didn’t have to worry about possible deportation as a consequence.
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6) democrats murdered 55 million of their caucus….
give a brother a break.
harlekwin15 on February 8, 2013 at 10:07 AM
Only one reason to not amnesty them.
It will encourage more illegal immigration.
astonerii on February 8, 2013 at 10:07 AM
So why have an immigration policy at all, just let everyone in.
This nation gets stupider by the day.
Bishop on February 8, 2013 at 10:10 AM
7. Because Rome didn’t fall fast enough?
viking01 on February 8, 2013 at 10:10 AM
Absurd.
There is a net economic negative. People who say unemployment is good for the economy push silliness like this.
Bus tables, mow lawns, sweep floors…I’ve done all that as my job. There are millions of college and high school students who have nothing to do. Don’t tell me there is no one for these jobs.
GardenGnome on February 8, 2013 at 10:10 AM
The best reason to grant illegal immigrants amnesty is that it will make libertarian think tankers irrelevant.
ninjapirate on February 8, 2013 at 10:13 AM
Sure, tell that to the unemployed folks with degrees in womens studies.
antipc on February 8, 2013 at 10:14 AM
BTW, reason magazine… your concept of ownership is too small and myopic… go read some Murray Rothbard, Hans-Hermann Hoppe, or Mencius Moldbug.
‘
Anarcho-Capitalism is actually saner than the libertarianism that is most popularly spouted.
ninjapirate on February 8, 2013 at 10:16 AM
Too bad every one of those points is demonstrably false.
James on February 8, 2013 at 10:17 AM
Whose economy?
Clink on February 8, 2013 at 10:17 AM
The down side for formerly illegal immigrants: You’ll now be eligible for an Obama drone strike.
forest on February 8, 2013 at 10:18 AM
Please… demonstrate…
JohnGalt23 on February 8, 2013 at 10:20 AM
1. Socialism is cool and since they have a hundred years of experience south of the border we need their help in making it happen.
2. The Democrats don’t win often enough.
3. To show those legal immigrant suckers who waited in line all those years that nice guys really do finish last.
4. Laws? Who needs the rule of law when you have feelings and emotionalism?
5. National borders are old hat and only old folks care about stuff like that. Remember ‘We are the world‘
sharrukin on February 8, 2013 at 10:23 AM
If you value American citizenship so little, then why don’t you just relinquish it and leave. There are no reasons to allow our sovereignty to be violated and then award those criminals. There are no reasons to destroy the notion of the nation-state. If this is how you feel, renounce your American citizenship and move somewhere else. Devaluing American citizenship is always wrong. You don’t deserve the Constitution. You deserve some Latin American dictatorship.
ThePrimordialOrderedPair on February 8, 2013 at 10:23 AM
1) ILLEGAL Aliens cost American taxpayers BILLIONS of dollars, and are a large part of the reason Sanctuary States like Illinois and California are headed towards bankruptcy.
2) ILLEGAL Aliens cost us taxpayer monies, and are part of the reason Sanctuary States are forced to raise taxes.
3) ILLEGAL Aliens left America enmasse when their mortgages came due. They are part of the reason we have TOXIC ASSETTS on the books today.
4) America is a land of laws which will be turned into a land filled with anarchy should people be fooled into supporting the law breakers from foreign lands.
5) IF our beloved Communist styled leaders EVER enforced our laws the ILLEGALS would leave on their own and never return. Stop giving them access to American social programs, stop educating them for ‘free [we pay for that], and fine the snot out of ANYONE that hires any illegal. The last will pay for ICE and the deportation efforts applied to those who refuse to leave on their own.
Finally, no one is counting how many of the ILLEGALS are in fact Muslim Extremists here to attack the innocent and promote terrorism. That negligence IS criminal in substancve, and the people culpable of these ILLEGAL acts need to be tried and imprisoned. Gitmo will do.
DannoJyd on February 8, 2013 at 10:23 AM
Anything we compromise and put in place restricting amnestied illegal aliens from things like welfare and voting are just a court order away from being taken out. Evidence is that the surge of illegal immigration may be ebbing, and if the deaths of Castro and Chavez lead to an end of Cold War politics in Latin America, the surge may go the other way. Amnesty would only encourage people to stay who are otherwise on track to leave.
Sekhmet on February 8, 2013 at 10:24 AM
HAHAHAHAHAHA
Me no likee here anymore, me go home now.
Bishop on February 8, 2013 at 10:30 AM
I don’t care how many dollars and cents arguments there are, it’s still highly reckless to repeatedly legitimize massive illegal migration from a large, highly nationalistic neighboring country with a history of animosity and a spoiled, irredentist elite whom we coddle out of guilt or some fanciful paternalism.
Seth Halpern on February 8, 2013 at 10:33 AM
Just looking at LA County blows most of his arguments out of the water.
Wigglesworth on February 8, 2013 at 10:38 AM
I would sure like to see all this tax filing by illegals using a phony SS number. Do you suppose they also receive the stimulus check back by Uncle Sugar or minimum tax credit? If the government can’t even tell someone is paying taxes into a SS number of someone else…what chance do we have they can do anything?
trs on February 8, 2013 at 10:38 AM
Seriously, these people are a joke.
sharrukin on February 8, 2013 at 10:41 AM
Stockton, Mexifornia, too, or what’s left of it.
viking01 on February 8, 2013 at 10:46 AM
Alternate title: 5 reasons why anyone who publicly declares they are a liberal should be automatically classified as mentally retarded.
Exactly. Hell, the entire state of Californication blows his arguments out of the water and a mile onto dry land.
MelonCollie on February 8, 2013 at 10:48 AM
I call bullshite. Aren’t most of them getting paid in cash, outside of the employment tax reporting system?
BuckeyeSam on February 8, 2013 at 10:54 AM
Most of their arguments were fallacious.
Most illegals don’t pay income taxes. Those who make enough to otherwise do so know to claim a bunch of dependents they don’t have. It’s not as if they’re worried about the IRS, because…
…nearly all illegals are felons. The vast majority engage in felony document fraud / identity theft. They do this not only for the sake of getting jobs but also to collect state and federal benefits.
Hollowpoint on February 8, 2013 at 10:57 AM
Ludicrous.
Anyone with a milligram of sense can figure out, pouring millions of new people into an economy with 20%+ real unemployment is a recipe for disaster.
More: America has accepted more immigrants per year than the rest of the world combined, and has since 1965. If immigration was the “magic bullet” for an economy, we’d have the best one ever.
Rebar on February 8, 2013 at 11:03 AM
This is satire, right?
conservative pilgrim on February 8, 2013 at 11:08 AM
1. Immigration Is Good for the Economy
2. Illegal Immigrants Already Pay Taxes
3. Most Illegal Immigrants Are Otherwise Law-Abiding
4. Immigration Is a Natural Right
5. There Are Too Many Illegal Immigrants To Do Anything Else
Dusty on February 8, 2013 at 11:10 AM
And another thing – why is it America’s immigration policy that’s “broken”? Why not the Mexican and other governments that cannot give their citizens a decent life, why aren’t they the ones that are broken?
Perhaps libertarians need to go to Mexico and “fix” it, rather than insist on the suicide of America as a republic. After all, the Mexican immigration policy is far harsher than anything even the most anti-immigrant conservative is suggesting.
Rebar on February 8, 2013 at 11:12 AM
1. Good at reducing wages to the illegal Mexican drug cartel wage slave $2.77 an hour like in California.
2. Illegals paying taxes and social security out of their wages by the crooked employer , held until a no match letter comes from the feds then held by the crooked empoyer until his (made men) natinal accounting firm tells him he can transfer the money back to the operating accounts.
3. Law abiding after the illegal crossing, carrying the drugs the coyote demanded they carry as now the coyotes are controled (owned) by the Mexican drug cartels. Law abiding except for the front of the lie to get the ok to cross is held open for Mexican Drug cartel family members and assoicate. Law abiding except for the ID theft, law abinding except for the SS fraud, law abiding except for the running from the wreck, law abiding except for the dance across the border 9 months preg. to the “Anchor Baby” hospital, law abiding except for the faked up Union Card that enables the scam of an OK to weld high pressure gas lines in the oil field in the Ft. Worth Barnett Shale Gas fields (pipe lines in residental areas, next to public schools) ya,, law abiding as Hells Angles.
4. Natural Right: God knows, we know, even this liar knows this sin he committs is a great and deadly one.
5. Too many,,,, well if this guy admits under oath he knows that the numbers are much higher than the current Democrat/msm lie of 11 million, that and he needs to tell U.S. what it is all the Mexican bus companies do with the thousands of bus tickets they sell every week to illegals going home to take the cash to the family in Mexico.
trash talk is all this fool has
APACHEWHOKNOWS on February 8, 2013 at 11:13 AM
Yes. They are much better off remaining eligible for collateral damage status.
Dusty on February 8, 2013 at 11:18 AM
I just do not feel mean enough, some one else go on line where this fool is and let him/them in on the “sex slave” operations going on in the “picking” fields of Fl. Calif. Texas, Nevada, Az etal.
I just do not know how grown humans can self delude themselves so total.
or
Is it they just get paid and it is simple greed?
APACHEWHOKNOWS on February 8, 2013 at 11:22 AM
The comments over at Reason are pretty funny.
Lots of folks are tired of the Third World-worshiping BS.
Punchenko on February 8, 2013 at 11:25 AM
That would require them acknowledging that Mexico has some serious laws on the books against illegal immigration. Ask the Guatamalans that come to Mexico illegal and see if Mexico is “thinking” about amnesty.
And I am sorry but in this economy illegal immigration does not help the economy. I remember when Alabama made their laws tougher and illegals fled that state. There were lines around the block to get the factory jobs they fled.. with legal workers..
melle1228 on February 8, 2013 at 11:28 AM
On what planet is this true? Ok, I’m going to go over to my neighbor’s house and plunk my butt down on his couch because it’s comfier than mine and turn on his TV because it’s bigger than mine and raid his fridge because he has better food. Hey, it’s my natural right! Napolitano is a perfect example of why I can’t be a Libertarian. They aren’t Libertarians, they are anarchists.
jnelchef on February 8, 2013 at 11:54 AM
He forgot his sarc/ tag, right?
Bmore on February 8, 2013 at 12:09 PM
No, it’s that Libertarians are a subspecies of that most dangerous breed of Man- idealists.
In their ideal vision of society, there would be no welfare state, no government benefits, no public schools. Immigrants who came would have to sink or swim like everyone else without the prospect of taxpayer funded benefits (because there would be practically none).
While I agree with most of their ideals, I’m also realistic enough to understand that their ideals will never come to pass. Being idealists, they don’t operate from a baseline of reality.
Hollowpoint on February 8, 2013 at 12:16 PM
Someone in the Reason comments with the handle MacKlingon linked to this. It’s pretty good.
Dusty on February 8, 2013 at 12:32 PM
Awesome.
Our economy will now be as good as California’s.
NeoKong on February 8, 2013 at 12:51 PM
I don’t know if the number is really two thirds, but I was surprised to learn (through personal experience) that the majority of illegal immigrants use Tax ID Numbers to file income taxes each year. They may be underpaying by under-reporting their cash earnings, but they are paying taxes. Their main motive is to have a multi-year record of tax payments in the event that that is a condition of amnesty. The IRS cannot share the information from their returns with any other agency.
steebo77 on February 8, 2013 at 1:14 PM
Think about this. An illegal alien using a TIN can claim up to 50 family members still in Mexico as dependents if he claims he sends them more 50% of their total living expenses. If they can get their taxes low enough through this method, they can get a 100% refund of their medicare and social security payments refunded.
Anyone saying illegal aliens are net contributors to our tax receipts is a blatant liar.
astonerii on February 8, 2013 at 8:00 PM