Life without illegal immigrants

American Demographics, May, 1996 by Brad Edmondson

Illegal immigrants get a lot of the blame for America's problems, but they don't deserve it. The government's bill for feeding, healing, and clothing them is balanced by the taxes they pay and the money they spend.

While they are heavily concentrated in a few places, they have only a minor effect on national population growth. Politicians who favor extreme measures to get rid of them aren't helping anyone - they are only scaring people in a cynical attempt to get votes.

Between 225,000 and 300,000 illegal aliens are added to the U.S. population of 264 million every year, according to estimates by the Census Bureau and the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) respectively. They account for 9 to 12 percent of population growth. But 40 percent of illegals live in California, 15 percent in New York, 11 percent in Florida, and 10 percent in Texas, according to the Urban Institute. Another 10 percent live in Illinois, New Jersey, and Arizona. In these key states and some big cities, the foreign-born are part of a demographic and economic transformation that frightens native-born Americans. Elsewhere, they are insignificant.

Do illegals hurt the economy? Probably not. Providing public education for children of illegal aliens costs about $3.1 billion in the seven key states in 1993-94, according to the Urban Institute. Illegal aliens in prison cost about $471 million a year, and they consume about $445 million more in Medicaid funds. But these costs are offset by about $1.9 billion in taxes paid by illegals and billions more in consumer spending. Impoverished field workers from Mexico get all the publicity, but the INS estimates that only 31 percent of illegal aliens are Mexican. And of the 1.7 million illegal workers who applied for citizenship in 1987, less than 4 percent were in farming, fishing, or forestry. In contrast, over 4 percent were executives, managers, or professionals; 21 percent held service jobs; and 24 percent were operators, fabricators, or laborers. Illegal aliens are consumers, too.

If we built a 2,000-mile wall through the desert, who would pick our crops, wash our dishes, and clean our hotel rooms? Agribusiness and hospitality firms would almost certainly persuade Congress to allow temporary workers to come north, and the flow would begin again. Some say that we should kick illegals out so that American citizens can have these dirty, low-paying jobs. But wouldn't we get further by focusing our efforts on the challenge of creating better jobs?

Illegal immigration is a crime. Like most categories of crime, it can be controlled but not eliminated. The damage it does to our country is minor compared to the damage done by real problems like handgun violence, substandard schools, or polluted water. So let's give the Border Patrol the tools they need, then turn our attention back to the real issues. Persecuting illegal aliens is about blame and racism. Ifs a waste of time.