U.S. anti-immigrant movement has proven itself to be irreparably inhumane and economically counterproductive

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Last edited Sun Sep 7, 2025, 09:54 PM - Edit history (2)

...as we watch yet another mass raid on workers without documentation to perform their jobs, or in the country past their visa requirements, we should be asking proponents of these and other terrorizing assaults on people who are essentially here in this country to live and work what their justifications were for starting what's become a civil war waged by the federal government inside of our states, and what is their justification now for continuing it.

Outside of the ridiculous claims by xenophobic demagogues like Trump that undocumented individuals or insufficiently credentialed foreign nationals in this country are an unmitigated and existential threat to Americans, there is an economic argument that has to have been disingenuous from the very beginning, when anti-immigration was resurrected from an ignorant and positively racist past as both a political football and cudgel against Democrats.

Unsurprisingly, there emerged a contingent of decidedly centrist Democrats who made their own political appeals to this demagoguery in response to election challenges and the rest. Not that Americans needed any encouragement to view their foreign visitors and neighbors with suspicion and antipathy; but this kind of appeal to the worst instincts of humanity found a sizable number of supporters in our party which has codified most of these falsely derived antipathies in our own national political posture like it's some rational and reasonable imperative, and it's really a shame.

The most substantively prominent argument in favor of 'cracking down' in immigration has been that migrants take jobs that would otherwise be filled by Americans. It's really an undeniable point, but to such a specious degree that it's easily overcome by the realities of the very same forces that allow the economies of our states to expand and grow.

Not every state is going to have the human resources they need to economically succeed at every opportunity that would advantage them. Americans move throughout the nation in pursuit of jobs and economic opportunity, but migration of industry to regions that are economically underdeveloped are always going to be challenged to fill high-tech and skilled jobs where there aren't enough workers available.

One claim by proponents of mass deportations is that they are a boon for American workers. Stephen Miller, Trump’s deputy chief of staff, contends that mass removals would create jobs for Americans and increase their wages. This argument assumes that unauthorized immigrant workers compete with native-born workers for similar jobs.

Several studies, however, conclude the opposite is true — namely, undocumented immigrants often take jobs that U.S. workers do not want.

A noteworthy example is a survey the National Council of Agricultural Employers conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic to find out how many unemployed Americans would take about 100,000 seasonal farm jobs. It found that only 337 people applied. The conclusion was that labor shortages (and food shortages) were likely to persist without seasonal immigrants.

A Brookings study documents the share of unauthorized immigrant workers and U.S.-born workers in the 15 most common occupations among unauthorized immigrants. The principal finding is that unauthorized immigrants take low-paying, dangerous and otherwise less attractive jobs more frequently than both native workers and authorized immigrant workers.

https://thehill.com/opinion/immigration/5116264-trump-immigration-policy-economic-impact/

Moreover, as we saw in the improving economy a few years back, industries and business have had trouble filling positions to the degree that it's affecting productivity.

This is peak America and the challenges we faced for centuries are essentially the same need to expand the economy to grow the economy; and that doesn't happen without an expanding population.

CNBC, Aug 1 2025

Economists generally think the U.S. economy needs to add roughly 80,000 to 100,000 jobs per month to keep up with population growth, said Laura Ullrich, director of economic research for North America at job site Indeed.

The July figure suggests the job market isn’t keeping pace with population growth — and is therefore contracting, she said.

Tariff policy compounds other headwinds, such as immigration policy that has reduced the amount of available workers, cuts to the federal workforce and government spending, and higher interest rates, Zhao said.

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/08/01/us-job-market-jobs-report-july-2025.html?msockid=19c9661de72e6d54127b7055e6a56cb7

It is indisputable that undocumented migrants contribute more to the U.S. economy through their WORK and their presence here than they take anything away from Americans.

If you subtract out all of the enforcement activities and the new ICE budget, you save even more.

A deportation program requires enforcement expenditures at the border and inside the border that increase primary deficits in addition to the lost tax revenue that would have otherwise been paid by unauthorized households subject to deportation.
https://budgetmodel.wharton.upenn.edu/issues/2025/7/28/mass-deportation-of-unauthorized-immigrants-fiscal-and-economic-effects

Isn't THAT what has been argued against undocumented immigrants - putting aside the cowardly portrayals of workers and families as criminal threats - that they are a drain on the economy?

The real issue here for Americans is the ACTUAL economic impact of undocumented migrants or those with restricted visas on local economies and on the U.S economy.

In 2022 America’s 10.9 million undocumented immigrants paid $96.7 billion in taxes.

That included $19.5 billion in federal income taxes and $32.3 billion in federal payroll taxes.
On a state and local level, undocumented immigrants contribute $37.3 billion in taxes, and in 40 of 50 states, they pay a higher effective state/local tax rate than the top 1% of households. The top 1% of highest-income households paid an average effective state/local tax of 7.2% in 2023, while the average undocumented immigrant paid a 10.1% effective tax rate to state/local governments.
It is estimated that $40 to $137 billion of additional revenue could be generated each year if these people were granted work authorization. This is because a less exploitable workforce would be paid higher wages (thus pay more taxes) and tax compliance by both employers and employees would increase.

Undocumented Immigrants paid an effective federal income tax rate of 5.27% in 2022, which was higher than some of the wealthiest Americans and mega corporations.

According to ProPublica’s released tax data from the 400 highest-income individuals, undocumented immigrants paid a higher effective tax rate than five of the richest Americans.
Undocumented immigrants also paid a higher effective tax rate than 55 mega corporations. Here is a list of the Fortune 500 corporations that paid less that same year. These corporations had a combined pre-tax income of nearly $200 billion but paid just $3.7 billion in federal income tax, 90% less than undocumented immigrants.

Undocumented Immigrants make significant contributions to our economy.

Undocumented Immigrants make up around 5% of the total workforce, but play even larger roles in key industries: 1-in-7 construction workers, 1-in-8 agriculture workers, and 1-in-14 hospital workers.

Deporting millions of undocumented workers would shrink the economy by $1.1 to $1.7 trillion, a more devastating contraction than what happened during the 2008 financial crisis.

https://americansfortaxfairness.org/undocumented-immigrants-contribute-economy/

Let's put a stop to this destructive politics against immigrants which is driven by fear and hatred, as much as it is about distortions about what their cost or economic impact is, and start talking about their benefit to America.

The human value of migrants which is being suppressed and obscured by these opportunistic political appeals to our worst instincts; stirring up unfounded fears and resentment about our own economic condition which has allowed politicians' anti-immigrant movement to blossom into a full assault on ALL Americans.


more...

Immigration politics turned out to be a weapon directed against ALL Americans
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100220618142

[Lovie777]

1. We the people knew and knows...............

it's gonna to hard, but even some Rwers see a little light.

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2. when it's their assses in bondage

...and slow to even that.