I can’t decide what to think about the illegal immigration problem in the U.S. I suppose I could spend an afternoon using Google to find the arguments on all sides. But I feel it would be like searching for diamonds in my cat’s ass: I believe, without evidence, that all I will find is crap.
Let’s test that prediction.
We can begin by putting illegal immigration in context. Do a little Google search and…the total spending of the government for 2006 was about 2,696 billion, according to this source:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2007/pdf/07msr.pdf [no longer available]
Google again and… the cost to the government of illegal immigration (after subtracting out the extra tax income) was about 10 billion in 2002, according to this self-described non-partisan think tank:
http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html
Let’s pump that cost up to 15 billion in 2006 just to be generous. Then do the math, and we see that immigration is about six-tenths of one percent of the budget. It’s not a big percentage, but it’s still more than most people want to pay to give social services to uninvited visitors.
But are those numbers anywhere near accurate? How the hell do you count the number of illegal aliens who are successfully blending in and paying taxes and buying milk at the corner store? Correct me if I’m wrong, but the concepts of “successfully hiding” and “I counted you” appear to be in direct conflict.
And what about the financial impact that illegal immigrants have on inflation? If they are taking jobs from legal residents, they are also keeping the average wages down. What’s the net financial impact of that? Does it hurt the country as a whole, or does it redistribute the benefits away from job seekers and toward consumers, the same way Walmart does?
I suppose I could research all of those questions and get answers. But I wouldn’t trust them. Nor would I trust that building a fence around the country would work. It seems to me that all it would do is make tunneling more popular. If you think a fence would keep the illegal immigrants out, you have to believe they aren’t willing to work extra hard to get what they want. That would be, like, the opposite of the average illegal immigrant personality. I think the first wave would chew a hole in the wall with their teeth. Or swim here. Or catapult.
Then there are the intangibles. How can you dislike someone who takes a big risk to better his family’s life, works incredibly hard at a productive job, and wants to live in your country? Are we really better off with fewer people of that character? I’d be amazed if the kids of illegal Mexican immigrants don’t become unusually successful entrepreneurs in a generation.
What’s the net? Beats me. That’s why I don’t vote.