Myths vs. Facts: Commonly Used Attacks Against Undocumented Immigrants

Myths vs. Facts: Commonly used attacks against undocumented immigrants
Information provided by: http://www.justiceforimmigrants.org and other sources as noted

MYTH: UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS DON’T PAY TAXES

FACT: Undocumented immigrants pay taxes in the form of income, property, sales, and frequently, payroll taxes at the federal and state level.

В· As far as income tax payments go, sources vary in their accounts, but a range of studies find that immigrants pay between $90 and $140 billion a year in federal, state, and local taxes.

· Undocumented immigrants pay payroll taxes as well, as evidenced by the Social Security Administration’s suspense file (taxes that cannot be matched to workers names and social security numbers), which grew by $20 billion between 1990 and 1998.

В· In Arizona, sales taxes supply nearly half of our state revenues. All immigrants pay sales taxes.

· Schools are funded by property taxes, which are paid by anyone that owns a home or rents a home or apartment. (Landlords cover their taxes with tenant’s rent payments.)
(Source: http://www.immigrationforum.org/about/articles/tax_study.htm)

MYTH: UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS TAKE ADVANTAGE OF PUBLIC BENEFITS

FACT: Undocumented immigrants come to work and reunite with family members.

В· Undocumented immigrants are not eligible for any federal public benefits. Many legal immigrants are not eligible either. The ratio between immigrant use of public benefits 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 $90 billion a year in taxes, and use about $5 billion in public benefits. In another cut of the data, immigrant tax payments total $20 to $30 billion more than the amount of government services they use.

В· Immigrant labor force participation is consistently higher than native-born, and immigrant workers make up a larger share of the U.S. labor force (12.4%) than they do the U.S. population (11.5%).
(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, immigrants and their businesses contribute $162 billion in tax revenue to U.S. federal, state, and local governments.

· While it is true that immigrants remit billions of dollars a year to their home countries, this is one of the most targeted and effective forms of direct foreign investment. They are often helping pay to educate their children, thereby ensuring that the next generation won’t have to live in poverty.
(Source: http://www.cato.org/research/articles/griswold-020218.html.)

MYTH: IMMIGRANTS ARE A DRAIN ON THE ECONOMY
FACT: During the 1990s, half of all new workers were foreign-born, filling gaps left 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 contribute to a thriving economy.

· The net benefit of immigration to the U.S. is nearly $10 billion annually. As Alan Greenspan has pointed out, 70% of immigrants arrive in prime working age. That means we haven’t spent a penny on their education, yet they are transplanted into our workforce and will contribute $500 billion toward our social security system over the next 20 years.
(Source: Andrew Sum, Mykhaylo Trubskyy, Ishwar Khatiwada, et al., Immigrant Workers in the New England Labor Market: Implications for Workforce Development Policy, Center for Labor Market Studies, Northeastern University, Boston, Prepared for the New England Regional Office, the Employment and Training Administration, 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 TAKE JOBS AWAY FROM AMERICANS...

FACT: This, the largest wave of immigration to the U.S. since the early 1900s coincided with our lowest national unemployment rate and fastest economic growth.

В· In Arizona, unemployment is currently 3.7 percent; a figure that is considered full employment. In the back-braking fields of meat-packing and farm-work, owners say that even if they offer $50 per hour, they could not fill these jobs with American workers. We have depended on immigrant labor to fill these jobs for decades. As the crackdowns on immigrants spread, fields all over the west are lying fallow because the farmers know they will not be able to find workers to pick their crops. In places where raids on meat-packing plants have chased out immigrants employers find that citizen workers do not want the jobs, or they quit after a short period of time because the work is too grueling.

В· Immigrant entrepreneurs create jobs for U.S. and foreign workers, and foreign-born students allow many U.S. graduate programs to keep their doors open. While there has been no comprehensive study done of immigrant-owned businesses, we have countless examples: in Silicon Valley, companies begun by Chinese and Indian immigrants generated more than $19.5 billion in sales and nearly 73,000 jobs in 2000.
(Source: Richard Vedder, Lowell Gallaway, and Stephen Moore, Immigration and Unemployment: New Evidence, Alexis de Tocqueville Institution, Arlington, VA (Mar. 1994), p. 13.)

MYTH: IMMIGRANTS CAUSE CRIME LEVELS TO RISE
FACT: Immigrant communities actually have lower crime rates than surrounding areas

В· Study after study shows that violent and property crimes are lower in communities with high concentrations of immigrants.  That makes sense.  Why would criminals risk their lives crossing our harsh deserts to live a life of crime when they can do that in their home countries?  These folks are coming here to earn an honest living and to make a better life for their families.  Mesa Police Chief George GascГіn notes that Latinos make up 25 percent of that city’s population, and are responsible for 25 percent of the crime. Undocumented Latinos make up a fraction of that 25 percent, so they could not be committing a larger proportion of the crime.

В· Last year Phoenix Police booked 45,000 people into jail. Of those, 3,500 (7.7 percent) were found to be undocumented.
(Sources: The Myth of Immigrant Criminality, Dr. RubГ©n G. Rumbaut, UC Irvine Professor of Sociology, Dr. Walter A. Ewing Immigration Policy Center; Dr. Robert J. Sampson, chairman of the sociology department at Harvard article in The American Journal of Public Health)

MYTH: IMMIGRANTS COST THE U.S. $BILLIONS IN EMERGENCY ROOM CARE

FACT: Immigrants are far less likely than citizens to use emergency rooms

В· A recent UCLA study showed that undocumented immigrants from Mexico and other Latin American countries are 50 percent less likely than U.S.-born Latinos to use hospital emergency rooms in California.

В· They are also far less likely than the general population to use any medical services. Undocumented immigrants are infrequent patients for primary care visits because they fear being asked for ID cards, Social Security numbers and employment histories. They fear being reported to authorities, even though the information may be used only to determine Medicaid eligibility or to set a sliding-scale fee.

В· Cost estimates vary widely. A Rand Corp. study published last year in the journal Health Affairs put the cost of healthcare for illegal immigrants nationwide at $1.1 billion a year,

В· The far greater financial burden on our emergency rooms stems from the 47 million Americans that have no health insurance and the 30 to 50 million more that are underinsured.

(Source: Archives of Internal Medicine)

MYTH: IMMIGRANTS DONT WANT TO LEARN ENGLISH OR BECOME AMERICANS

FACT: Within ten years of arrival, more than 75% of immigrants speak English well; moreover, demand for English classes at the adult level far exceeds supply.

В· Demand for English classes at the adult level far exceeds supply, and we continue to place barriers in the paths of those who wish to learn English. In 2006, Arizona voters passed a ballot measure barring undocumented immigrants from taking English classes from organizations receiving state funding while simultaneously requiring that all government business be conducted only in English.

· We need to ask if this is a genuine concern or a talking point. We should ask ourselves why so many Americans flock to our cities’ “Little Italy” and “Chinatown” neighborhoods, where the languages and cultures of the “old countries” are still spoken in businesses, on advertisements and in the media, while simultaneously resenting hearing Spanish.

(Source:  American Immigration Lawyers Association, “Myths & Facts in the Immigration 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” New York 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 at 11.5%; in the early 20th century it was approximately 15%.

· Similar to accusations about today’s immigrants, those of 100 years ago initially often settled in mono-ethnic neighborhoods, spoke their native languages, and built up newspapers and businesses that catered to their fellow immigrants.

· They also experienced the same types of discrimination that today’s immigrants face, and integrated within American culture at a similar rate. We forget that the slur “wop” stood for “WithOut Papers,” and that “Paddy wagons” were so named because whenever there was crime, the police would go out and round up the “Paddys,” a slur for the Irish. Caucasians from Eastern Europe often anglicized their names so that they would not be profiled or suffer discrimination. This practice continues today--John Stewart’s real name is John Stewart Liebowitz.

В· If we view history objectively, we remember that every new wave of immigrants has been met with suspicion and doubt and yet, ultimately, every past wave of immigrants has been vindicated and 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 today’s immigrants have legal permanent (immigrant) visas; of the 25% that are undocumented, 40% overstayed temporary (non-immigrant) visas.

В· Undocumented immigrants estimated to be less than 2% of the US population. (Source: Department of Homeland Security http://uscis.gov/graphics/shared/statistics/index.htm)

MYTH: THEY SHOULD GET IN LINE LIKE EVERYONE ELSE
FACT: They would much prefer to enter legally, but THERE IS NO LINE!

В· More than 480,000 per year are coming to the U.S. and finding work.  There are industries (agriculture and meat-packing for example) that are entirely dependent upon undocumented labor. 

В· Yet the immigration quota for Mexicans seeking work, for example, is capped at around 25,000 annually (five percent of 480,000).  The wait to get into that pool of 25,000 is six to ten years.  

В· These workers would much prefer to enter legally through the ports of entry, but until we change our hypocritical system of being dependent on hundreds of thousands of undocumented workers each year while only allowing a tiny fraction to enter legally, we will remain in this ugly situation.  

(Source: Pew Hispanic Center & League of Women Voters)

MYTH: WEAK U.S. BORDER ENFORCEMENT HAS LEAD TO HIGH UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRATION
FACT: From 1986 to 1998, the Border Patrol’s budget increased six-fold and the number of agents stationed on our southwest border doubled to 8,500.

В· The Border Patrol also toughened its enforcement strategy, heavily fortifying typical urban entry points and pushing migrants into dangerous desert areas, in hopes of deterring crossings. 

В· Instead, the undocumented immigrant population doubled in that timeframe, to 8 million—despite the legalization of nearly 3 million immigrants after the enactment of the Immigration Reform and Control Act in 1986. 

В· Insufficient legal avenues for immigrants to enter the U.S., compared with the number of jobs in need of workers, have significantly contributed to this current 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 restrictive immigration measures would have prevented the terrorist attacks.

В· Instead, the key is effective use of good intelligence. Most of the 9/11 hijackers were here on legal visas, and none of them entered the U.S. through Mexico.

В· Since 9/11, the myriad of measures targeting immigrants in the name of national security have netted no terrorism prosecutions. In fact, several of these measures could have the opposite effect and actually make us less safe, as targeted communities of immigrants are afraid to come forward with information.

(Source: Associated Press/Dow Jones Newswires, US Senate Subcommittee Hears Immigration Testimony, Oct. 17, 2001.) (Source: Cato Institute: Don’t 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)

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