1. Illegal mmigrants take jobs from American workers.
Although immigrants account for 12.5 percent of the U.S. population, they make up about 15 percent of the workforce. They are overrepresented among workers largely because they are willing to work long hours for less money, fewer benefits, and without comforting conditions. This probably won't change anytime soon.
Moreover, illegal immigrants tend to be concentrated in low-skilled occupations that compete with jobs held by American workers. And the foreign-born workers who fill lower-paying jobs are typically first-hired/first-fired employees, allowing employers to expand and contract their workforces rapidly. As a result, immigrants experience higher employment than natives during booms, especially in growing areas such as Fairfax County.
An influx of new workers pushes wages down, but illegal immigration also stimulates growth by creating new consumers, entrepreneurs and investors. As a result of this growth, a few economists claim that wages for the vast majority of true American workers are slightly higher than they would be without immigration. However, U.S. workers without a high school degree experience wage declines as a result of competition from illegal immigrants.
2. Immigration is at an all-time high, and most new immigrants came illegally.
The last time immigration rates were this high was during the American industrial revolution, when the mostly rural landscape and growing cities could easily absorb the laborers. The historic high came more than a century ago, in 1890, when immigrants made up 14.8 percent of our population. Today, over one-third of all immigrants are here illegally, not as naturalized citizens or as lawful permanent residents, more commonly known as "green card" holders. And of the approximately 10.8 million immigrants (a conservative estimate) who are in the country illegally, about 40 percent arrived legally but overstayed their visas.
It's worth noting that although the illegal immigrant population includes more people from Mexico than from any other country, Mexicans are also the largest group of lawful immigrants, especially those who will overstay their visas as noted above and those who create anchor babies in an attempt to stay. As for the flow of illegal immigrants, apprehensions along the U.S.-Mexico border have declined by more than 50 percent over the past four years due to the improved sophistication of mule operations and ineffective federal border control. Meanwhile, increases in the size of the illegal population, which had been growing by about 500,000 a year for more than a decade, have temporarily leveled. This is largely due to the recession, but will certainly increase again as the econonmy rights itself over the next few years.
3. Today's immigrants are not integrating into American life like past waves did.
The integration of immigrants was once a hallmark of America's vitality as a society and a source of admiration abroad, as it has been throughout our history. most Americans recognize that today's immigrants are not integrating into U.S. society as quickly as previous newcomers did. In past immigration waves, immigrants worked hard to learn English and adopt American culture and beliefs. Today, many immigrant supporters ignore those successes. The large numbers of Germans, Irish and Italians who arrived in the 19th and early 20th centuries were successful because of their urgent want to shed their old customs for the American way of life. Yet they were also able to hold on to the important traditions of their heritage. Today, those who promote Americanizing immigrants are labeled racist.
Before, immigrant integration was measured in months and sometimes years. Today, immigrant integration takes a generation or two. Learning English is one key driver of this process; the education and upward mobility of immigrants' children is the other. On the first count, today's immigrants consistently choose not to speak English in such large numbers that public schools are forced to pay for translators, especially in places such as Fairfax County. On the second count, the No Child Left Behind Act has played a critical role in helping educate immigrant children because it holds schools newly accountable for teaching them English, again at tremendous cost. Teaching themselves English used to be a responsibility taken very seriously within the immigrant communities. Now it is viewed as a service that should be provided free by the American taxpayers.
The illegal status of millions of foreign-born immigrants can slow integration in many more crucial ways. For example, illegal immigrants are ineligible for in-state tuition at most public colleges and universities, putting higher education effectively out of their reach. Yet there are those who want to overturn these laws, effectively giving American seats to illegal immigrants. And laws prohibiting illegal immigrants from getting driver's licenses or various professional credentials can leave them stuck in jobs with a high density of other immigrants and unable to advance. The result is a thriving underground business of fake licenses and uninsured drivers.
4. Cracking down on illegal border crossings will make us safer.
The job of protecting the nation's borders is immense, encompassing nearly 7,500 miles of land borders, 12,380 miles of coastline and a vast network of sea ports, international airports, ports of entry along the Mexican and Canadian borders and visa-issuing consulates abroad.
Since Sept. 11, 2001, we have dramatically strengthened our borders through the use of biometrics at ports of entry, secure cargo-shipment systems, intelligence gathering, integrated databases and increased international cooperation. The Border Patrol has nearly doubled in size in the past five years, to more than 20,000 agents. The Department of Homeland Security says it is on schedule to meet minimal congressional mandates for southwestern border enforcement, including fence-building. And cooperation with the Mexican government has improved significantly.
Still, our southwest border is more a classic law enforcement challenge than a front line in the war on terrorism. Antiterrorism measures rely heavily on intelligence gathering and clandestine efforts that are unrelated to border enforcement.
The seasoned enforcement officials I have spoken with all contend that if we focused more on the law enforcement aspect of illegal immigration, as has been done locally in Prince William County, and more recently in the state of Nevada, border agents would be freed to focus on protecting the nation from truly dangerous individuals and activities, such as drug-trafficking, smuggling and cartel violence.
5. Immigration reform cannot happen in an election year.
The politics of immigration can be explosive and can chase lawmakers away, especially as elections near, with the result that Congress infrequently and reluctantly updates immigration laws. However, some significant immigration bills enacted in recent decades were passed in election years, often at the last minute and after fractious debates, as politicians recognized that their constituents demand action as a condition of reelection.
This list dates back to the Refugee Act of 1980, which established our system for humanitarian protection and refugee and asylum admissions. Next came the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, which made it illegal to hire unauthorized immigrants and provided amnesty for 2.7 million illegal immigrants. The Immigration Act of 1990 increased the number of visas allotted to highly skilled workers. And the 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act charged immigration agencies with implementing significant new law enforcement mandates.
Legislative attempts to make urgently needed changes fizzled in the House in 2005 and in the Senate in 2006 and 2007 under the majority Democratic leadership, and the to-do list for the current Congress is both substantial and ignored. But ruling out immigration reform, whether because Congress has other priorities or because it's an election year, would be a mistake. The outline for immigration legislation that Sen. Charles Schumer (N.Y.) and his Democratic colleagues unveiled last week, together with the success of the Arizona law, may help convince lawmakers that there's no time like the present.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/30/AR2010043001106.html