The American Immigration Debate and the Statue of Liberty

(1). The Heritage Foundation recently released a report that concludes that proposed legislation legalizing illegal immigrants would cost US taxpayers a net $6.3 trillion over the next 50 years, or $126 million per year. Driving the costs in the Heritage report are simple demographics - illegal immigrants are more likely to lack a high school education, and more than a third of households headed by illegal immigrants live below the poverty line, meaning those households consume more in services than they pay in taxes. Heritage says legalizing them improves the situation in the short run but creates a negative balance over the longer term, when they would be able to access more public health programs and, eventually, Social Security and Medicare benefits. Over a lifetime, it means each illegal immigrant-led household would receive $592,000 more in government benefits than it would pay in taxes. The Heritage report produced a vociferous backlash from Haley Barbour, a former Mississippi governor and national Republican Party chairman, who said in a conference call that the analysis was “a political document” rather than a “serious” effort at debate : “This study is designed to try to scare conservative Republicans into thinking the cost here is going to be so gigantic you can’t possibly be for it,” Mr Barbour said, adding that Heritage used to support broad free-market immigration reforms to help the US economy, and that, Mr. Barbour said, is the conservative stance. But Heritage President Jim DeMint, a Tea Party leader and former US Senator who is seen as a possible 2016 GOP presidential candidate, said the costs of the legislation should give conservatives pause. Under the proposed legislation, all illegal immigrants would be given quick legal status and agriculture workers and young adults would receive a quick path to citizenship, while others would have to wait 13 years for citizenship. In the meantime, the Homeland Security Department would have to make more efforts to secure the border and to track entries and exits at airports and seaports. Heritage said that current illegal immigrants who are put on a pathway to citizenship will use $9.4 trillion in services and benefits, while paying $3.1 trillion in taxes, leaving a net drain to taxpayers. Steven A. Camarota, research director at the Center for Immigration Studies, said even assuming al llegal immigration is halted, the US would have to create more than 30 million jobs in the next decade to make up for job losses in the past few years and accommodate population growth and the surge of legal immigration envisioned in the legislation. He said the conclusions from the Heritage study are obvious given the demographics of the population in question. “What Heritage is showing is there’s a high cost to cheap labor,” he said. “If you really think that high school dropouts are good for the economy and good for taxpayers, we could produce them domestically. We are, actually.” Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of the conservative-leaning American Action Forum who joined Mr Barbour for the conference call, said he drew a different conclusion from the study : that Social Security and other big spending programs will have to change. “I read this in many ways as not a study that casts doubt on the value of immigration reform but as a ringing endorsement of the need for entitlement reform,” said Mr. Holtz-Eakin, a former Congressional Budget Office director who has argued for a better legal immigration system to boost the economy. He said that Heritage made certain assumptions about illegal immigrants, including that they are likely to remain poor and have only limited economic mobility when they are legalized. Mr. Holtz-Eakin said his experience suggests it’s difficult to capture the exact demographics and prospects of the population. (2). In 1883, the American poet Emma Lazarus wrote "The New Colossus," to be auctioned as part of the effort to raise funds for a pedestal for the Statue of Liberty, given as a symbol of eternal friendship by the people of France to the people of United States on the occasion of America's 100th anniversary. The poem was forgotten and wasn't mentioned in the inauguration of the Statue of Liberty in 1886. But after Lazarus' death, friends launched an effort to have the poem mounted on the pedestal. It was engraved on a plaque and placed on Lady Liberty in 1903. Here are the lines of the immortal sonnet : Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, / With conquering limbs astride from land to land; / Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand / A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame / Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name / Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand / Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command / The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame. / "Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she / With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor, / Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, / The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. / Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, / I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" ~~~~~ That, dear readers, is the dilemma inherent in the American debate over immigration reform. The extreme left wants to legalize all the approxinately 11 million now - criminals included? The extreme right wants to deport all of them now - at a cost of $500 per person, that is $5.5 trillion, unless we dump them into the nearest ocean with a set of water wings. The rest of America is weaving impossibly complex systems in an effort to please everybody - all with an eye to the growing Hispanic voting block - something I find demeaning; Hispanic Americans will vote for candidates and parties that represent their personal needs and interests; they do not offer themselves as prizes in an immigration popularity contest, nor should any American politician want them to or encourage such behavior. I have been saddened by the bitterness in the arguments because the illegal immigrants entered America in search of a job, food, education and a future for their children, and freedom. Didn't every "American" set foot on our soil for the same reasons? They are a cost item now and everyone who can use a PC is calculating the cost of letting them stay or tossing them out. They are a regional problem with some states bearing the brunt of the costs. They include criminals and drug dealers and mules but no estimates put this faction at more than 2-8%. And, yes, they broke the law to get into America - but for me that is America's fault, not theirs. The US needs to tighten its borders and immigrant and visitor visa tracking systems, but it seems grossly unfair to blame poor, freedom-seeking people for American failures - and please don't bore us with the pious idea that all Americans obey all laws all the tine because it is simply not true. I keep looking at the plaque on the Statue of Liberty. There is no footnore fine print that says - only white Europeans or Asians with IT or engineering degrees, or who are doctors or nurses are welcome. "Give me your tired, your poor, / Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, / The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. / Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, / I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" The only requirement on the Statue of Liberty plaque is that immigrants should be searching for freedom. If America, that shining city on the hill, cannot afford 10 million new freedom-seeking immigrants, perhaps we ought to consider firing some congressional aids and bureaucrats to make way for people who might actually contribute to America's future, given half a chance.