Of course, they are not really “illegals” as they should properly be referred to as “undocumented immigrants,” “unauthorized immigrants,” “non-citizens,” “without status,” and/or “unlawfully present.” As the Left stumbles over the correct characterization of people who have entered this country with no compliance to our national laws and remain here despite their continuing non-compliance, the Left is now telling us they are actually enhancing our economy.
Our national press and elected leaders have finally woken up to the fact that Democrats have been conflating “illegal” immigrants with “legal” immigrants and combining them in one big punch bowl. This has been something the Left has been touting for years (and has been pointed out in this column for years) to validate the illegals and taint their political opponents as “anti-immigrant.” We are now being told that the Illegals are actually a huge benefit to the economy.
The timing for this claim is odd, to say the least. Mayors across the country (nearly all Democrats) have been pounding President Biden to provide funds from that money tree just outside the Oval Office to pay the staggering costs of housing, feeding, and caring for the mass illegal immigration that finally has slapped them on their sanctuary derrieres. As the mayors call for cuts in essential services to provide support for their cities’ interlopers, it is quite startling that the residents of these cities don’t demand a change of course as they drive over their unfilled potholes and by their uncollected trash.
A perfect example of the new way of thinking about our illegal immigrants is illustrated in the Washington Post’s column by Catherine Rampell who writes on economic issues. Ms. Rampell has the same qualifications on economics as Jared Bernstein, Mr. Biden’s chair of United States Council of Economic Advisors – meaning none. Her biography states that her mother is an accountant, arguably the closest Ms. Rampell comes to having a background in the area. Yet she keeps writing things like: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/02/13/immigration-economy-jobs-cbo-report/.
She cites in her column, “As CBO Director Phill Swagel wrote in a note accompanying the forecasts: As a result of these immigration-driven revisions to the size of the labor force, ‘we estimate that, from 2023 to 2034, GDP will be greater by about $7 trillion and revenues (taxes) will be greater by about $1 trillion than they would have been otherwise.’”
People can make an effective argument that we need to have some immigrants because of our declining birthrate. The most recent figures show a birthrate of 1.6 children while the replacement rate for a population is considered 2.1 children. The rate ticked up slightly in 2022, but only a smidgeon.
The most fascinating statement in her column: “The CBO has now factored in a previously unexpected surge in immigration that began in 2022.” Unexpected by whom? Biden’s open border policy had illegal immigrants flooding into the country for over a year by that time.
The facts say that the average of legal immigrants over the past 20 years has been a little over 1,000,000 per year. Given that our country had a Republican administration during 12 of those years (you know, the “anti-immigrant party”), that certainly seems like a significant number. The numbers show that the total of legal immigrants actually plummeted in 2020 and 2021 to an average of close to 725,000 per year. That should not surprise anyone since we were experiencing a worldwide pandemic. It is actually a little surprising the numbers were that high because the legal immigration process was largely shut down prior to a reopening.
So how was the CBO factoring in this unexpected surge? It shows you that not only did Ms. Rampell and the Washington Post willy nilly conflate illegal and legal immigrants, but the Congressional Budget Office does the same.
One must wonder how they create their figures when the illegal immigrants are missing two things that legal immigrants have – defined skills and green cards giving them the right to work here. Despite the touted new jobs numbers each month, there are still 8.9 million job openings in the United States. That number is down some but has been consistently between nine and ten million for a while.
There are two challenges to filling these jobs. First, getting native born Americans off their butts to get to work. The employment rate for American men ages 25-54 has been and remains dismal. The other challenge to filling these jobs is matching applicants’ skills to the available positions. Even if we provided all the illegals with green cards that doesn’t mean they come here with job skills unlike legal immigrants. One might argue you can train them, but the ones crossing the border these days are from all over the world and come with significant language barriers to being trained.
Some of the people coming here illegally may have serviceable skills. Most are qualified to be schleppers at construction sites or housekeeping help at hotels. We only have so many of those positions while we feed and clothe their children. Then there is medical care.
The CBO and Ms. Rampell have been smoking a lot of hooch here. There is no question legal immigrants add a lot economically to our country and we are letting in a huge number each year. There is no way that these Biden illegal immigrants are going to be anything other than a drain on our economy for years to come. Dispelling the CBO and Ms. Rampell’s myths is imperative.
