Demand Comprehensive Immigration Reform

For the last few weeks I have been bombarded in the immigration reform debate.

I advocate for comprehensive immigration reform. I believe this is the only way to truly deal with the immigration debate. I also believe

1) America’s immigration system is broken
2) The US needs to protect our borders
3) We need stricter interior enforcement and harsher rules on employers who hire illegal.
4) A program to push undocumented people out of the shadows.
5) I believe in stopping illegal immigration, not stopping immigration. New immigrants are necessary for our thriving economy.

Because of this I support comprehensive immigration reform. The United States needs to protect our borders and crackdown on employers. By forcing them to follow the law, the demand for employment will go down.

The reason the current immigration laws haven’t worked is because the laws go against the natural laws of supply and demand. It’s a reality of history, if a law goes against supply and demand, that law will not work.

1 million of the 2.5 million new jobs created in the U.S. in 2004 went to immigrants, mostly Hispanics. 1 in every 7 workers in the U.S. in 2004 was born elsewhere – 40 percent of these are Mexican. Possibly 6-7 million are here illegally.

Currently the United States is at about 4% unemployment. That means that America is practically fully employed. The economy has continuously increased for more then a dozen quarters. States with high immigrant populations have higher GDPs then many third world nations. States like Texas, California, Florida and New York are constantly outdoing themselves in production and economic growth.

In a study done by UCLA, each and every undocumented worker had a gross economic contribution of $45,000 in California during the 1990s

While we can not reward illegal behavior with a full blanket amnesty, which is the wrong message. We can provide programs and new laws that pushes these people out of the shadows.

Yet Immigrants are not a drain on the economy. Immigrant workers help continue the cycle of job creation and growth essential for America’s economy Illegal immigrant workers pay about $7 billion each year in taxes – including $2.7 billion into Social Security, which they will never be able to collect.

We need a program to push them out of the shadows because millions are being exploited and living in poverty. By providing program that allows them to come out of the shadows they can better provide for their families and contribute to the communities they are currently living in.

While some skeptics want illegals out of the country because they think they take away jobs from Americans, that is not true. The CATO institute has shown that immigrants do not take jobs away from Americans – instead, they fill segments in the job market where most Americans are either over- or under-qualified. Immigrants act as a safety valve for the U.S. labor market, allowing the supply of workers to increase relatively quickly to meet rising demand.

Deporting illegal immigrants is not only economically unintelligent (the US already spends $56 million deporting people back to their home) but physically impossible. It would take busses stacked back to back from Anchorage, Alaska to San Diego, California to send them all back. On top of the additional monies needed for law enforcement to find them. Why spend so much money on a large group of people who have no criminal offense.

Instead go after terrorist, drug dealers or real criminals. Spend all that money on enforcing the border, build strong virtual walls. God. No one is against immigration reform or border security, we just want a sound policy that is in order to the American principles and tradition.