On this issue of immigration, I'm a radical conservative.
There are many reasons to INCREASE the immigration flow into the United States. That is a CONSERVATIVE stance! I'm influenced on this issue by Jason Riley, previously a conservative columnist for the WSJ, who wrote a compelling book called "Let Them In".
1. Grow the economic pie.
2. Fill jobs that Americans don't want to fill.
3. Demographic Solution to our current imbalance.
4. Tax receipts
5. Legal angle
The first GOP/Trump lie about immigration is that they are bringing on a crime wave including violence. Anecdotally, there is a grain of truth to this lie. Crimes will be committed by immigrants but studies show that violence per 100,000 people is LOWER among undocumented immigrants vs US citizens by a wide margin. This makes sense if you think about it for a moment. Someone who is seeking a better life in a foreign land is fearful of getting deported and therefore keeps their heads down. Similarly with the lie about illegals voting. They don't risk being caught for the price of a single vote. A simple google search yields many studies. Here's one:
Grow the economic pie - The fear that "immigrants are taking our jobs" has been trotted out throughout US history. The reality is that the historical data reveals that economic activity increases. The great economic growth of the Industrial Revolution coincides directly with huge immigration flow. Stopping immigration in the early 1930s deepened the depression for years. When millions of soldiers were set to reenter civilian life after WWII the concensus among economists and businessmen was that another depression was imminent because there were not enough jobs available. Instead, we launched an economic growth trend all the way through the 1950's. If immigration ever does overwhelm economic opportunities then immigration flow would decline accordingly. That is only if you believe in free markets.
Fill jobs that Americans don't want to fill - Stuping to pick strawberries, working on a roof on a hot summer day, other grueling jobs.
Tax receipts - As "illegals" (I prefer the term undocumented immigrants), they are operating in a cash economy without paying taxes. If we make their status legal (NOT citizenship) we bring them out of the shadows. That enables us to tax their income which is a huge plus.
Demographic Solution to our current imbalance - In the early days of social security policy there were 50 workers for every senior (people didn't live as long). More recently, the ratio is 3 workers for every senior. This is partly due to the baby boomers all getting old and that they live much longer. We can't replenish the workforce with a new generation of workers fast enough to keep up. The obvious solution is more immigration. It has ALWAYS been the right move in our history. I suspect it is one of the main reasons for our centuries of economic dominance.
Legal Angle - I mentioned earlier that a policy of immigration increases does NOT have to come with citizenship. Work permits of 5 years perhaps with a yearly charge on the immigrant status. Israel has such permits for Thai workers with no problems. The worker is usually the man of the house sending wages back home to Thailand. Allowing controlled immigrant processing in the light of day will pay for itself if properly established.
Here are some authentic facts:
https://comptroller.nyc.gov/reports/facts-not-fear-how-welcoming-immigrants-benefits-new-york-city/
I'm ok with legal immigration. But there needs to be some rules.
There is some kind of work visa for farm workers, but they need to go through the proper channels. As for working on hot roofs, cash workers have a large advantage over regular citizens. Yet they enjoy some benefits that they don't pay taxes for.
We need to vet as best as we can, that should be part of being legal.
The illegal drugs coming across the border is murder in my view.
Glad that you beat me to it cutworm!
I agree with almost all of what joj stated(with some elaboration below) and 100% on what cutworm stated (who also agrees with much of what joj stated).
Immigration is a key, needed part for the United States to prosper.
But there MUST BE a process, that includes vetting, to weed out the people who would, not just make poor citizens but especially those coming here TO HURT US.
With hundreds of millions of people that WANT to come here.........we can certainly pick the ones that would make better citizens, right?
joj,
With regards to this being a conservative position, I think that if you do a poll of 10,000 actual conservatives, you would find disagreement.
Also on illegal immigrants voting. That is not the short term political objective (longer term, probably).
I've covered the REAL political short term objective several times here.
Re: Re: Re: Re: ELECTORAL COLLEGE GOIN' BY THE WAYSIDE?
By metmike - April 21, 2024, 3:19 p.m.
In 2030, when the new census comes out and COUNTS ILLEGAL CITIZENS for redistributing the apportionment of representation, the Ds will increase their representation in Congress via the US Constitution. Even though illegals will not have the right to vote, they live in D strongholds and the census will apportion those strong holds with additional representatives because of the higher population. This is a huge reason that Ds have been gushing in illegal immigrants during the Biden administration. YES IT IS!
This is NOT speculation. It will happen in 2030!
https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/decennial-census/about/census-constitution.html
Article I, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution mandates that an apportionment of representatives among the states must be carried out every 10 years. Therefore, apportionment is the original legal purpose of the decennial census, as intended by our Nation's Founders. Apportionment is the process of dividing the 435 memberships, or seats, in the U.S. House of Representatives among the 50 states, based on the state population counts that result from each decennial census. The apportionment results will be the first data published from the 2020 Census, and those results will determine the amount of political representation each state will have in Congress for the next 10 years.
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Regardless of that, it's STILL OK TO DO IT but it must be done right with background checks/vetting.
In fact, if they come in LEGALLY, they would become LEGAL votes much faster!!!!!!!
Also, if you think about it, this change in apportionment based on the census, that will include all the illegal immigrants pouring in will give our D politicians what they crave the most MORE POWER.
I would much rather see the power going to LEGAL immigrants that can vote in elections NOT to politicians obsessed with their own political power using backdoor schemes like this.
In fact, if they come in LEGALLY, they would become LEGAL votes much faster!!!!!!!
Also, if you think about it, this change in apportionment based on the census, that will include all the illegal immigrants pouring in will give our D politicians what they crave the most MORE POWER.
I would much rather see the power going to LEGAL immigrants that can vote in elections NOT to politicians obsessed with their own political power using backdoor schemes like this.
I'm not sure if you read my post but I proposed immigration without citizenship (that means not eligible to vote)
Thanks, Joj!
I get your point, even though I missed it the first time.
I like the idea of people being here that qualify to do so with background checks…….if they are contributing to our economy and society, have all rights of citizenship given to them…….following whatever the filing and waiting period is.
i would guess that a legal citizen would feel more patriotic and aligned with other fellow Americans than somebody feeling like a visitor from elsewhere.