Illegal Immigration is a Dead Issue

Alex A. Alonso
December 7, 2005

For years, going back to President Ronald Reagan, illegal immigration has not been a concern for Washington politicians, both Democrats & Republicans alike. It’s because the benefits of hiring low wage workers, and how companies yield larger profits when they employ them. It is capitalism at it’s finest, whether one likes it or not, the stimulation to the economy far out weighs the costs associated with the social services they use, including incarcerating violent offenders, and educating them in US public schools. Everyone knows that illegal immigrants use millions of dollars of social services in the US every year, but they also put millions back into the economy and allow the private sector to maximize profits which has always stimulated our economy.

Although many illegal immigrants send money back to their home country, they spend much more of their money within the confines of the United States. These workers, shop in US markets, purchase homes in US communities, apply for loans, pay taxes, purchase cars, frequent US entertainment centers, pay rent and spend billions of dollars in the United States by far. Their financial contribution to the US economy is looked at as a benefit to the US economy by Washington politicians, and that’s the reason why the INS will never pursue illegal immigration full-time. The US Border Patrol infrastructure is designed to catch one person for every 100 that crosses the border illegally.

The employment of illegal immigrants satisfies part of the economic structure of capitalism that exploits labor to increase profits. As long as we have capitalism, we will have foreign low wage earners and people should not be surprised. Over 150 years ago the Chinese served that role in the US and during that period, there were those opponents that gave birth to the “Chinese Exclusion Act” in 1882, but the Chinese continued to come to the US and built huge communities in some of America’s beloved cities (New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco) as they were a primary working force constructing some of US most traveled railroads.

In California the people passed Proposition 187 in 1994 which was a modern day “Mexican exclusion act,” but the Supreme Court struck that proposition down as unconstitutional a few years later, and today continues the hatred against foreigners coming to the US for a better life. The hypocrisy of proposition 187 was that it would have cost more money to implement that it would have to let Mexicans stay.

Illegal immigration is here to stay. Businesses and large corporations are always trying to find way to increase profits, but more importantly the 8 to 30 million illegal immigrants spend billions in the United States which spark the economy on several fronts. Congress and nearly all the Presidents during the last couple decades did not object to illegal immigration in any serious manner and it was our most beloved President Ronald Reagan who opened the flood gates that brings us to the situation we are at today.