Illegal Immigration is killing our economy

The notion that illegal immigration is somehow beneficial to our economy is in my mind absolutely ridiculous.

I mentioned earlier that I'm somewhat motivated by things happening where I work. I work at a large federal agency. Although I no longer deal directly with the public, I used to hold a position where I had direct access to both the financial and personal records of 100's of illegal immigrants. There are a number of laws that do not allow me to discuss specifics, so I have to tread lightly in this discussion. But take my word, overwhelmingly the illegal immigrants I dealt with had access to Medicaid (called AHHCS or Access in Arizona), Federal Welfare benefits, Section 8 housing etc. Most of these folks held jobs that in the past had been desirable jobs for Americans, skilled jobs in construction, printing, machining etc. Most of them made better than minimum wage. The argument that these folks are only taking the jobs that citizen don't want couldn't be further from the truth. For every agricultural employee I encounter, I dealt with at least 3 others that had decent jobs, albeit at wages significantly less than what would have been the rate 10 years ago. I was also surprise how many of these folks owned homes in the Phoenix area.

My agency provides customer service at a counter at our headquarters. Up until 2 years ago, this counter would see maybe 40-50 people a day, mostly citizens with agency related questions. About 2 years ago a new law was passed providing documentation for non-citizens, that was administered by our agency. Since that law was passed, we normally have 200-300 people waiting before opening, all illegal aliens, all waiting for this documentation which makes their lives easier while living in the US. Because of this single change, our office has had to add about a dozen new spanish speaking employees, while our english-speaking customers now have to wait for hours in order to wade through the sea of illegals. The additional cost to the nations taxpayers for this one small program has to be in the 10's of millions, don't tell me that illegal immigrants are economically self-sustaining.

Again, this is one small example of the cost to government due to illegal immigration. I want to gag everytime some II advocate whines "they pay their taxes too" The reality is they pay virtually nothing (often nothing) in income taxes, pay a little Social Security (which has a commensurate benefit upon retirement), and little in sales taxes because if the hype is to be believed, they are too poor to be purchasing anything other than lightly taxed items like food.

More on the immense cost of illegal immigration to come.

Why am I doing this?

Let me give you a little background. I'm a computer specialist w/ a very large Federal Agency. I'd rather not discuss the specifics of the agency. I want this blog to be about the illegal immigration nightmare in this country, and not about where I work. But where I work is somewhat relevant, let me say that I don't work specifically with an immigration agency, nor with Homeland Security. I've been unhappy with the illegal immigration situation in the US for a long time, but things are happening where I work, that have just pushed me over the top. I'll discuss the specifics on my next post.

Let me also say that I lived in Mexico in 1978 and 1979. My life in Mexico was a combination of living with host families all over Mexico, and living in Mexico City for roughly 6 months, in a very upscale "colonia" just outside of the Federal District. I worked for a US based international non-profit agency, and my office was downtown in Mexico in the Edificio Banca Serfin, right across from the Bellas Artes/Alameda. I've lived in homes with families that are very wealthy, and I've lived in homes of the poor. I still have friends in Mexico who are members of some of the most elite families in the country, and I have friends who live in a block house, with no windows, no indoor plumbing, the only source of water being a straight pipe coming out of the top of a block shower in the back yard (cold water). You've not experienced Mexican life until you take a shower in 50 degree weather, with ice cold water coming from the pipe.

My point is that this is not about Mexicans, and I dare say I've got better connections to Mexico and many Mexicans than many pro-illegal immigration types. Having said that I am convinced that there is little beneficial to life in the US that is derived from the presence of millions of illegal immigrants. There is no other way to honestly evaluate the data, illegal immigration is a tremendous drag on our economy, shows contempt f0r the laws of our country, and has the potential to divide our nation culturally along the lines of countries like Canada, Belgium, Cyprus, the list goes on and on.

As I said, I'll get into the raw meat of the matter on my next post. I have a lot to say about this, hopefully I'll engender some discussion on this crucial issue.

TKS
AA

Border Rat is coming

In the next few days, I will be starting a rant concerning the devastation of the situation with illegal immigration. Hang in there, more to come!!