Hostility in the United States toward immigrants has risen sharply in recent years. The strongest sign of this was the law signed last April by Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, which gave the police broad powers to detain anyone suspected of being an illegal immigrant. Two U.S. Senators, Jon Kyl of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, have gone so far as to propose repealing the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which grants automatic citizen- ship to all babies born on U.S. soil, regardless of the citizenship status of the baby’s parents. Of course, these actions are primarily a response to the economic wreckage caused by the 2008-2009 Wall Street collapse. But they fly in the face of evidence, which shows that immigrants are by no means responsible for mass unemployment or the cutbacks in social benefits that U.S. residents are now experiencing.
Immigration into the U.S. has been rising steadily since the 1970s, after having fallen for sixty years from its peak level around 1910. At present, immigrant arrivals—running at about 1.25 million people per year—account for 40 percent of population growth nationally, and a much larger share in some regions. Something like 35-40 percent of new arrivals are undocumented immigrants from Mexico and Central America with low education and limited English skills.
According to polling data, large majorities of native U.S. residents hold much more favorable attitudes toward immigrants, including undocumented workers, than Governor Brewer and Senators Kyl and Graham. Still, politicians do not make a habit of taking actions that lack popular support. The anti-immigration sentiment is real, even if among only a minority of the population, including those supporting the right-wing Tea Party insurgency.
Nobody should be surprised by this development. Due to the 2008-2009 Wall Street collapse and ensuing recession, the official unemployment rate averaged 9.7 percent for the first eight months of 2010, although a more accurate figure would be close to 20 percent. State and local governments throughout the country are sharply cutting education, health, and social safety net programs. This is all after the recession ended in mid-2009, at least according to the official declaration of the National Bureau of Economic Research.
GO HERE to read more.
5 comments:
I am a paleoconservative and i have no problem with undocumented workers--as i am one, thougth a citizen--in/of liberty. I find it neoconservative to beat-around-the-bush regarding the Mexican and hispanic cultural encrouchment and disguise it as an illegal versus legal immigration issue.
I am concerned about illegal immigration because it is an issue affecting national sovereignty and our national security. Yes, it is an economic issue but that is secondary in my mind.
We should open our country up to more LEGAL immigration and deport all those who are here illegally.
As for blaming illegal immigrants - NO, we shouldn't blame them. We should blame the US Chamber of Commerce (for whom it is ONLY an economic issue) and their pals in the Federal government for refusing to enforce our sovereign borders.
The way I understand the Arizona law, the second sentence of this article is simply false, untrue, disingenuous, and misleading. Not to mention wrong.
The issue is not about immigration, it is about upholding the law. We should no more be holding demonstrations supporting illegal immigrants than we should be demonstrating to support muggers, robbers, and pickpockets. If you are here illegally you should have no rights to any government supported services. If you are breaking the law you are a criminal and should be treated as such. While conditions in many South & Central American countries are very much less than ideal, that is not an excuse to break our laws.
We are not anti-immigrant.
We are anti-ILLEGAL-immigrant.
Big difference.
But 'attitudes toward immigrants' don't change facts.
Many of the illegals are a MAJOR drain on our economy.
And we, as the taxpayers who are being forced to support them have a right to say something about it.
We don't like it.
I'm sure many of them are nice people, but if they came here illegally, they need to go home.
Post a Comment