The Case Against Legal Immigration

American Rattlesnake ^ | June 11, 2012 | Gerard Perry

[OddLane]

The issue of immigration-or even the mention of immigration enforcement-has been wholly neglected by the presumptive nominees of this country’s two major political parties. Even as prominent politicians find new ways in which to exploit ethnic divisions for the sake of political expediency, the perverse incentives of America’s federal immigration policies remain unaddressed. While Democrats seek to harvest what they expect to be a political windfall from Hispanic voters, Republicans pander, or hispander as some deem it, to what they view as an ascendent voting bloc, even going so far as introducing a bill eerily similar to one the GOP staked its reputation opposing during the final hours of a Democrat-controlled Congress.

That’s why the speech delivered by David North-seen above-at the Penn Club last month-the final one in this year’s lecture series sponsored by the Center for Immigration Studies-was such a welcome relief, especially for those of us who are looking for reliable, empirical data which illuminates the dimensions of the problem we’re facing. A former Labor Department official, Mr. North is currently an expert on legal migration patterns and processes for CIS. In that capacity he’s demonstrated just how immigration reforms enacted by Congress, from the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act, to the mass amnesty of 1986 known as Simpson-Mazzoli, to the Immigration Act of 1990-which introduced the horrifying concept of the Visa Lottery-have irreparably altered the demographic future of the United States.

[OddLane]

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[OddLane]

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[CaribCarter]

In my opinion, the greatest single argument against legal immigration is Barack Obama.

[OddLane]

Can’t argue with you there.

[ansel12]

We filled up years ago, we need to stop it, and concentrate on rebuilding our national unity and reasserting our American culture, and American identity.

This last 100 million people has really hurt the quality of physical life compared to 1970 America, and it has broken the ability of native Americans to get a grip on the growth of government and the left.

We never get a chance to catch our breath, or to deal with a stable electorate, or community, we keep getting radical laws from crime to the environment slapped on us related to dealing with this last 100 million people and the 100s of millions who are headed our way.

[cripplecreek]

While we have an unemployment level above 2 or 3 percent, immigration should be restricted and we should be making sure that we’re educating enough (but not too many) kids for the most sought after jobs.

I never thought I would be happy to see my niece walk away from college but her reasons made it worthwhile. She says the college was impoverishing her and training her for a job that will be filled by a “guest worker” anyway. She figured out that Western Michigan University was creating a dependent and enriching the system that points fingers at everyone else.

She went from learning physical therapy for brain injured patients to learning tool and die making while on the job. Meanwhile she’s working part time with mentally disabled adults in an adult foster home.

[battousai]

Last time I checked it was a bunch of white liberals born in America and a bunch of black liberals also born in America who voted in your communist president.

Legal immigrants on the other hand, especially Asians and South Asians (like myself - legal immigrant in Canada) have been building up businesses and working, again unlike native born Americans who are looking for freebies.

...think you need to look a little closer to home for the problem than blaming legal immigrants, generally the ones who don’t bother to just run across the border actually have something to offer back to the country.

[Road Glide]

The time has come to consider ending all immigration — ALL of it, even “legal” — for a period of at least 40-50 years.

There should be very few exceptions, if any at all.

[SharpRightTurn]

BUMP

[rmlew]

I believe that we should reduce immigration to a manageable number, perhaps 310,000 per year, picked on the basis of economic need and nuclear family reunification.

[WashingtonSource]

We should end all immigration except for limited quotas from European nations that have demonstrated their ability to be assimilated into the United States — and who can bring skills to the United States.

[Amberdawn]

Amen. I’m sick when I think how transformed this country has become just since I was a child. It’s easy to become alienated. P.S. I’m only 44.

[LadyDoc]

Obama’s father was a visiting student, not an immigrant.

However, Nikki Haley and Bobby Jindal’s parents were immigrants.

And many immigrants are Republicans because they support hard work and religious values: or rather they would be if bigots like this weren’t associated with the Republican party.

[OddLane]

Among others.

There are legal immigrants that contribute to this country, but the notion that our immigration policy is designed to maximize the number of these immigrants is preposterous.

The complete opposite is the case.

Of the 1.1 million green cards issued in a typical year, the United States awards 85 percent to family and humanitarian immigrants and only 15 percent to employment-based, highly skilled immigrants.

Of these 15 percent, half go to the workers' spouses and children. Among OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) nations, no other nation puts such a low priority on work-based immigration.

In other words, less than eight percent of legal immigrants come here for the express purpose of working.

Or to put it another way, ninety percent of them do not.

[OddLane]

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[OddLane]

1. He came here on a student visa. That doesn't mean he wouldn't have stayed in the United States if he hadn't bombed out of Harvard. In fact, all evidence is that he would have tried to remain here like the rest of Obama's extended family. There is also something called Adjustment of Status, which you would have known if you had taken the trouble of actually reading the article before posting your uninformed snark.

2. I don't "associate myself the Republican Party" precisely because people like you, Jeb Bush, Karl Rove, and their acolytes have turned it the mindless echo chamber that has given us this debacle while ensuring that the electorate thinks John McCain and Rick Perry are exemplars of contemporary conservatism.

3. If you think that a nitwit on a message board repeating ad hominems that I've seen repeated a thousand times before is going to deter me from analyzing an issue that I-unlike you-actually know something about, you're mistaken.

[OddLane]

Piling up a load of debt for a degree that you might or might not be able to utilize once you graduate when you can train in a field that will actually benefit you financially doesn't make sense.

Not that there isn't genuine value in a classical liberal arts education, but the notion that the typical college education today benefits every student is absurd, IMO.

Especially when it's being bankrolled by a mountain of debt.

[Road Glide]

“We should end all immigration except for limited quotas from European nations that have demonstrated their ability to be assimilated into the United States — and who can bring skills to the United States.”

That was “the exception” to which I was referring. I was thinking in particular of Euro-heritage people from both South Africa and Zimbabwe — who may ultimately face genocide in their own countries. We should give them refuge, which will ultimately be to our advantage.

[PGalt]

Thanks for your article and the follow-up discussion bringing this important topic back for our consideration. Informative/educational on something that is contributing to our demise. I’m for a ban on ALL immigration for XX years. Neither party espouses that option. We are forced down immigration alley by TPTB. Thought-provoking BUMP!