The Absurd Report

The Real Cost Of Immigration

As some experts tell Congress to fight a possible recession with more immigrants, a respected economist warns that immigration’s costs are grossly underestimated — because the government won’t study them.

Set for release Tuesday is a report published by Social Contract magazine, “The Fiscal Impact of Immigration: An Analysis of the Costs to 15 Federal Departments and Agencies.”

The 70-page study was conducted by Manhattan Institute adjunct fellow Edwin S. Rubenstein. As senior economist at W.R. Grace & Co. in the 1980s, he directed in-depth studies of government waste for the Grace Commission that sparked much popular outrage against Washington’s spendthrift habits.

Rubenstein found that each immigrant costs taxpayers more than $9,000, while every immigrant household of four costs $36,000 in taxes. That’s far more than the $3,408 in 2007 dollars the National Research Council’s 1997 “New Americans” study of federal, state and local government expenditures found immigrants to cost.

“The federal government has never produced a comprehensive study of this issue,” Rubenstein noted.

More from IBD Editorials

Poll: Voters Unaware of Candidates’ Immigration Positions
McCain Supporters Farthest Off the Mark

A new poll using neutral language finds that primary and caucus voters have little knowledge of candidates’ immigration positions. The results also show that voters often do not share their candidate’s position.

For results and tables, go to http://www.cis.org/articles/2008/voter_release_08.html

Among the findings:

# Only 34 percent of McCain voters, 42 percent of Clinton voters, and 52 percent of Obama voters correctly identified their candidate as favoring eventual citizenship for illegal immigrants who meet certain requirements.

# Of McCain voters, 35 percent mistakenly thought he favored enforcement that would cause illegals to return home, another 10 percent thought he wanted mass deportations, and 21 percent didn’t know his position.

# Voters often held different positions from the candidate they supported. Only 31 percent of McCain voters had the same immigration position as he does. For Clinton voters, 45 percent shared her position; 61 percent of Obama voters shared his position.

# This lack of knowledge, coupled with disagreements with their candidates’ positions, makes it very difficult to draw any conclusions about the fact that all three remaining candidates favor legalization for illegal immigrants.

# Whoever wins the presidency will face significant opposition to giving eventual citizenship to illegal immigrants. Just 25 percent of Republican and 50 percent of Democratic primary/caucus voters said they would support such an effort.

# Pro-enforcement voters have a greater intensity of views than supporters of legalization. Among Republicans, almost nine out ten who favored causing illegals to return home said they strongly supported that view; on the other hand, fewer than half of Republicans who backed legalization strongly supported that view.

# This greater intensity also exists among Democrats. Of Democrats who favored causing illegals to return home, more than seven out of ten strongly supported that view; on the other hand, fewer than six out of ten who favored legalization strongly supported that view.

Methodology: The survey of 1,276 persons who voted in a primary or caucus was conducted March 12-13. The survey was conducted by Pulse Opinion Research.

Source: The Center for Immigration Studies

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi plotting to put amnesty for 12-20 million illegal aliens

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and a handful of her far-left cronies in Congress are plotting to put amnesty for 12-20 million illegal aliens back on the table!

And their first order of business is BLOCKING legislation that would finally beef up our nation’s border security and crack down on employers that hire illegal aliens.

We’re talking about the Secure America Through Verification and Enforcement Act of 2007 or SAVE Act of 2007 (HR 4088), an enforcement-only bill that will add 8,000 agents to secure our borders and implement systems that will allow employers to easily verify workers’ immigration status.

More from CFIF.org

Pelosi Working on Secret Deal to Give US Jobs to Illegal Aliens!!

5-Year-Amnesty Plan Gaining Power in Congress!

More from Numbers USA

Elite vs. Public Opinion
An Examination of Divergent Views on Immigration

“The results of the survey indicate that the gap between the opinions of the American people on immigration and those of their leaders is enormous.

“The enormous difference between elite and public opinion can also be seen on the issue of illegal immigration. The survey found that 70 percent of the public said that reducing illegal immigration should be a ‘very important’ foreign-policy goal of the United States, compared to only 22 percent of elites.

More from Center for Immigration Studies

immigrants, immigration’s costs, McCain Supporters, McCain, immigrants, Obama, illegal immigrants, Nancy Pelosi, Secure America   

Tags: Immigration

Trackback URI | Comments RSS