Illegal immigrants add to GDP, so obviously, they are good for the economy.

That's the new spin from the Establishment. 

Border upside: Surge of illegal immigrants helped U.S. economy avoid recessionhttps://t.co/RHLVZFudOK pic.twitter.com/siexEB8Ac7

— The Washington Times (@WashTimes) February 15, 2024

This, to me, is a bizarre argument, even though, in the narrowest sense, it is true. GDP has risen because there are more people spending more money on more goods. 

It is true in exactly the sense that 15% inflation raises your income because you got a 10% raise. 

Your income is higher! Thank the Fed. 

They think you are stupid. Evidence, though, shows that in matters that hit close to home and with which we have direct experience people go with reality over spin.

The Biden administration issued nearly 3.5 million work passes last year to migrants, many of them caught and released at the border, and provided an unexpected boost to the economy.

The surge of migrants under President Biden helped stave off what some analysts predicted was a guaranteed recession and was poised to help keep the economy humming for the next couple of years, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

CBO now figures that the labor force will have 5.2 million more people over the next decade than projected, making the economic numbers a bit rosier. The U.S. gross domestic product will be $7 trillion more, and federal revenue will be $1 trillion more.

“More workers means more output, more income, and that in turn leads to higher revenue,” CBO Director Phillip Swagel told lawmakers on Wednesday.

The findings provided a different perspective on the chaos in the immigration system under Mr. Biden and delivered a new argument to immigrant rights advocates seeking to defuse anger over the border.

Do you buy this argument? If so, I have a nice bridge in Brooklyn that you can have real cheap. Cash up front please. 

Now, for the sane among you, what is fishy about this argument? 

It assumes that a massive influx of low-skilled, low-wage workers will not change American citizens' labor price. Unless you believe that these illegal immigrants aren't competing with citizens for jobs, you are transferring potential wealth from American workers to new arrivals.

Yes, it is true that on net there will be some new jobs--after all, more people means demand rises for goods and services--but the increased demand will not raise demand for labor enough to not have a negative impact on labor prices. Illegal migrants will benefit because even lower American wages are higher than they would have gotten at home, but wages for American workers will decline from what they otherwise would have been. 

The government may hoot and holler that the economy is doing better--but individual Americans are doing worse. 

Mr. Swagel said the new arrivals fill the U.S. labor force, boosting the economy’s productivity.

That’s not good news for people who must compete with the newcomers. CBO said the migrants are generally expected to work in low-wage jobs, “putting downward pressure on average wages.”

Given the larger population, it turns out that per capita GDP will also dip. In other words, the economy will be bigger, but the average worker will be slightly worse off, said CBO, predicting that real wages will be “slightly lower than they would have been otherwise” in the coming decade because of immigration.

That part is not mentioned enough, said Steven A. Camarota, a demographer at the Center for Immigration Studies. He said the “bigger is better” argument obfuscates what it means for workers.

“If all that mattered was aggregate GDP, then India is a lot richer than Sweden. But what matters is per capita, and there’s no clear evidence that immigration increased per capita. In fact, because immigrants are poorer, it seems to lower it,” he said.

Aggregate GDP is a useful but very crude measurement. It gives you a broad idea of what is happening to output and consumption, but for individuals what matters most is their own ability to consume and save for the future. 

And that's only one aspect of the larger problem with the influx of illegal immigrants. They are extraordinary drains on government's ability to provide services to people, as resources are transferred to illegal immigrants from where they were intended: American citizens. 

If this doesn’t piss you off I don’t know what will?

These illegals have been here for over 7 months leaching off your tax dollars. They get FREE food, FREE room in a luxury hotel, FREE items for children, FREE healthcare and FREE cleaning and laundry services EVERY FREAKING… pic.twitter.com/mKxUvm9OjN

— I Meme Therefore I Am 🇺🇸 (@ImMeme0) February 15, 2024

So if government budgets go up, that doesn't mean that government services for citizens go up as well. Quite the opposite. Americans are paying more in taxes and getting less in services. 

Then there is quality of life. Crime is skyrocketing, the house crunch is being exacerbated by millions of new entrants into the housing market, and drugs have flooded the US. 

.@NYCmayor Eric Adams says people will soon be ‘on the streets’ due to immigrant influx https://t.co/O44PLFOc3x https://t.co/O44PLFOc3x

— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) February 15, 2024

But be happy! GDP is rising!

The level of gaslighting here is astonishing. 

Biden brags at the number of jobs created in the US during his administration, but what he and others tell you is that almost all of them have been filled by immigrants, legal or otherwise. The labor participation rate for Americans hasn't budged since 2019, before COVID. It is in fact a bit lower. 

Americans understand this problem viscerally. They feel their lives are getting worse. Their purchasing power is down, they feel more anxious about the economy, and fear that they are losing their own futures because Biden wants to transfer their own prosperity to non-citizens. 

They are right.