Our Nativist Insanity
The anti-immigrant drum beat has been constant and growing in the last few years. Led by demagogues such as Lou Dobbs and Tom Tancredo, nativist groups and politicians have consistently dehumanized and spread lies about immigrants, both documented and undocumented. They have portrayed immigrants as uneducated animals who come to America to steal our jobs, destroy our culture and kill our children. Almost every Republican presidential candidate has jumped on the nativist band wagon, each promising to do more to harass and deport illegal immigrants. Many of them have even gone as far as taking extremely isolationist positions that are antithetical to the notion of globalized capitalism that is promoted by the economists and businesses that make up the base of the Republican Party. However, the nativist and often borderline racist positions taken by these demagogues are often deluded and always bad ideas for America.
America's strength throughout its history has been built on the back of the (often exploitative) labor of its immigrants. From the Irish, to the Italians, to today's Hispanic immigrants (not to mention the forced immigration of millions of African slaves), immigrants have always been the force that has driven the American economy. Now anti-immigrant activists have made an assertion that flies in the face of history, economics and reality: that immigrants hurt our economy.
One of the most common assertions is that undocumented immigrants do not pay taxes. This statement, while not completely false, is a misrepresentation of reality. Undocumented immigrants do not pay income tax (a problem that could be very simply solved by legalizing them), but this is a much smaller issue than it seems. First of all, many illegal immigrant families do not make enough money to have to pay federal income tax, and secondly they pay all other kinds of taxes. Undocumented immigrants pay sales tax on everything they buy, pay property tax on any property that they own and often pay money into a false social security account, money that they will not be able to get back when they retire. When Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan testified to the Congress, he calculated that undocumented workers contribute far more than their fair share to the economy, paying more than $70 billion in taxes and using about $43 billion in services. This donation of $27 billion to the government does not include the other positive impacts of immigrants on the economy, including the jobs they create when they start their own businesses and sales of consumer goods to undocumented immigrants. The idea that immigrants "take away jobs" is a complete misnomer. The number of jobs in the economy is always changing, and the economic growth caused by immigrants makes up for the jobs that they have taken.
Another claim thrown around by ill-informed nativists, especially Lou Dobbs, is that undocumented immigrants make up a huge proportion (about 1/3) of criminals. This statement is patently false. In reality, according to the Department of Justice, noncitizens (both legal and illegal) make up 20 percent of federal inmates. However, even this number does not represent reality, because immigration violations themselves are a federal offense. In state prisons, where people are sent for violent crimes such as murder and rape, only 4.6 percent of inmates are noncitizens. Overall, noncitizens make up 6.4 percent of the state and federal prison population, and 6.9 percent of the total population. Immigrants make up far less than their fair share of inmates. They come to this country because they want to work and build a better life, not to commit crimes and cheat their way to the top. Undocumented workers also have an additional reason not to commit crimes: the fear of deportation. So if immigrants actually help our economy and are not rabid criminals, then why have they stirred up so much anger in America?
They are destroying American culture! How they are doing this I could never figure out. Almost all Hispanic immigrants are Catholics, and willing to work hard to succeed. These are the very values that Americans are said to value most. As far as different customs go, some of the best things in America have come from our immigrant populations. From Pizza, to Pad Thai to Tacos, the food we enjoy most comes from other parts of the world. These immigrants even learn English very quickly. The New York Times has reported that 88 percent of second and 94 percent of third generation Hispanic immigrants speak perfect English, even without it being the official language. However, even if these facts were not true, the Tancredo "deport 'em all" position is completely unrealistic.
It would cost more than $200 billion to round up and deport every illegal immigrant, and that does not take into consideration the cost to the American economy. It would mean stepping up cruel raids that destroy immigrant families, and often leave children orphaned. In addition, a wall along the Mexican border would not only send the wrong message to the world, but would be incredibly expensive and ineffective in stopping the flow of undocumented immigrants, as long as the US labor market demands cheap labor, people will come to take those jobs.
However, if despite all this we are still committed to stopping the "Browning of America," the racist term used to describe the recent wave of Hispanic immigrants, there are much better ways to go about it than building walls. Immigrants have always come to America to escape crushing poverty in their home countries, but the poverty of Latin America is different from European poverty of a century ago, because it is caused in large part by US involvement. The US government has had a part, whether direct or indirect, in overthrowing the governments of 9 Latin American governments during the 20th century. The chaos and civil unrest caused by these coups have contributed to the poverty and lack of economic growth experienced by these countries. In addition, US free trade agreements such as NAFTA have increased poverty and inequality in Latin America in order to increase profits of American and international corporations. This, combined with other US economic practices such as corn subsidies, increase the numbers of poor and unemployed people in Latin America, who see America as a place where they can escape poverty and build a better life.
One fact that is constantly forgotten in the immigration debate is that immigrants are human beings like any other. Everyone has dreams, aspirations and families, no matter which country they come from or what language they speak. All people should have the right to migrate to provide for themselves and their families, and they should not be stopped by the lines in the sand that we call borders.
