Myths v. Facts on Immigration

May 11, 2006

Mythsvs. Facts: Commonly used attacks against immigrants

Information provided by:http://www.justiceforimmigrants.org

FACT: Immigrants pay taxes, in the form of income, property, sales, and taxesat the federal and state level. As far as income tax payments go, sources varyin their accounts, but a range of studies find that immigrants pay between $90and $140 billion a year in federal, state, and local taxes. Undocumentedimmigrants pay income taxes as well, as evidenced by the Social Security Administrationssuspense file (taxes that cannot be matched to workers names and socialsecurity numbers), which grew by $20 billion between 1990 and 1998.

(Source: http://www.immigrationforum.org/about/articles/tax_study.htm)

FACT: Immigrants come to work and reunite with family members. Immigrant laborforce participation is consistently higher than native-born, and immigrantworkers make up a larger share of the U.S. labor force (12.4%) than they do theU.S. population (11.5%). Moreover, the ratio between immigrant use of publicbenefits and the amount of taxes they pay is consistently favorable to the U.S.In one estimate, immigrants earn about $240 billion a year, pay about $90billion a year in taxes, and use about $5 billion in public benefits. Inanother cut of the data, immigrant tax payments total $20 to $30 billion morethan the amount of government services they use.

(Source: Questioning Immigration Policy Can We Afford to Open Our Arms?,Friends Committee on National Legislation Document ..G-606-DOM, January 25,1996. http: www.fas.org/pub/gen/fcnl/immigra.html)

Myth: IMMIGRANTS SEND ALL THEIR MONEY BACK HOME

FACT: In addition to the consumer spending of immigrant households, immigrantsand their businesses contribute $162 billion in tax revenue to U.S. federal,state, and local governments. While it is true that immigrants remit billionsof dollars a year to their home countries, this is one of the most targeted andeffective forms of direct foreign investment.

(Source: http://www.cato.org/research/articles/griswold-020218.html.)

Myth: IMMIGRANTS TAKE JOBS AWAY FROM AMERICANS…

FACT: The largest wave of immigration to the U.S. since the early 1900scoincided with our lowest national unemployment rate and fastest economicgrowth. Immigrant entrepreneurs create jobs for U.S. and foreign workers, andforeign-born students allow many U.S. graduate programs to keep their doorsopen. While there has been no comprehensive study done of immigrant-ownedbusinesses, we have countless examples: in Silicon Valley, companies begun byChinese and Indian immigrants generated more than $19.5 billion in sales andnearly 73,000 jobs in 2000.

(Source: Richard Vedder, Lowell Gallaway, and Stephen Moore, Immigration andUnemployment: New Evidence, Alexis de Tocqueville Institution, Arlington, VA(Mar. 1994), p. 13.

Myth: IMMIGRANTS ARE A DRAIN ON THE ECONOMY

FACT: During the 1990s, half of all new workers were foreign-born, filling gapsleft by native-born workers in both the high- and low-skill ends of the spectrum.Immigrants fill jobs in key sectors, start their own businesses, and contributeto a thriving economy. The net benefit of immigration to the U.S. is nearly $10billion annually. As Alan Greenspan points out, 70% of immigrants arrive inprime working age. That means we havent spent a penny on their education, yetthey are transplanted into our workforce and will contribute $500 billiontoward our social security system over the next 20 years

(Source: Andrew Sum, Mykhaylo Trubskyy, Ishwar Khatiwada, et al., ImmigrantWorkers in the New England Labor Market: Implications for Workforce DevelopmentPolicy, Center for Labor Market Studies, Northeastern University, Boston,Prepared for the New England Regional Office, the Employment and TrainingAdministration, and the U.S. Department of Labor, Boston, Massachusetts,October 2002.

http://www.nupr.neu.edu/1102/immigration.PDF..search=’center%20for%20labor%20market%20studies%20at%20Northeastern%20University%20studies’)

Myth: IMMIGRANTS DONT WANT TO LEARN ENGLISH OR BECOME AMERICANS

FACT: Within ten years of arrival, more than 75% of immigrants speak Englishwell; moreover, demand for English classes at the adult level far exceedssupply. Greater than 33% of immigrants are naturalized citizens; givenincreased immigration in the 1990s, this figure will rise as more legalpermanent residents become eligible for naturalization in the coming years. Thenumber of immigrants naturalizing spiked sharply after two events: enactment ofimmigration and welfare reform laws in 1996, and the terrorist attacks in 2001.

(Source: American Immigration Lawyers Association, Myths & Facts in theImmigration Debate, 8/14/03.http://www.aila.org/contentViewer.aspx?bc=17,142..section4 )

(Source: Simon Romero and Janet Elder, Hispanics in the US Report Optimism NewYork Times, (Aug. 6, 2003).

Myth: TODAY’S IMMIGRANTS ARE DIFFERENT THAN THOSE 100 YEARS AGO

FACT: The percentage of the U.S. population that is foreign-born now stands at11.5%; in the early 20th century it was approximately 15%. Similar toaccusations about todays immigrants, those of 100 years ago initially oftensettled in mono-ethnic neighborhoods, spoke their native languages, and builtup newspapers and businesses that catered to their fellow migrs. They also experiencedthe same types of discrimination that todays immigrants face, and integratedwithin American culture at a similar rate. If we view history objectively, weremember that every new wave of immigrants has been met with suspicion anddoubt and yet, ultimately, every past wave of immigrants has been vindicatedand saluted.

(Source: Census Data:http://www.census.gov/prod/2002pubs/c2kprof00-us.pdf,http://www.census.gov/prod/2002pubs/censr-4.pdf)

Myth: MOST IMMIGRANTS CROSS THE BORDER ILLEGALLY

FACT: Around 75% of todays immigrants have legal permanent (immigrant) visas;of the 25% that are undocumented, 40% overstayed temporary (non-immigrant)visas. Undocumented immigrants estimated to be less than 2% of the USpopulation.

(Source: Department of Homeland Security(http://uscis.gov/graphics/shared/statistics/index.htm)

FACT: From 1986 to 1998, the Border Patrols budget increased six-fold and thenumber of agents stationed on our southwest border doubled to 8,500. The BorderPatrol also toughened its enforcement strategy, heavily fortifying typicalurban entry points and pushing migrants into dangerous desert areas, in hopesof deterring crossings. Instead, the undocumented immigrant population doubledin that timeframe, to 8 milliondespite the legalization of nearly 3 millionimmigrants after the enactment of the Immigration Reform and Control Act in1986. Insufficient legal avenues for immigrants to enter the U.S., comparedwith the number of jobs in need of workers, has significantly contributed to thiscurrent conundrum.

(Source: Immigration and Naturalization website:http://www.ncjrs.org/ondcppubs/publications/enforce/border/ins_3.html)

Myth: THE WAR ON TERRORISM CAN BE WON WITH IMMIGRANT RESTRICTIONS

FACT: No security expert since September 11th, 2001 has said that restrictiveimmigration measures would have prevented the terrorist attacksinstead, the keyis effective use of good intelligence. Most of the 9/11 hijackers were here onlegal visas. Since 9/11, the myriad of measures targeting immigrants in thename of national security have netted no terrorism prosecutions. In fact,several of these measures could have the opposite effect and actually make usless safe, as targeted communities of immigrants are afraid to come forwardwith information.

(Source: Associated Press/Dow Jones Newswires, US Senate Subcommittee HearsImmigration Testimony, Oct. 17, 2001.)

(Source: Cato Institute: Dont Blame Immigrants for Terrorism, Daniel Griswold,Assoc. Director of Cato Institutes Center for Trade Policy Studies (see:http://www.cato.org/dailys/10-23-01.html)