Immigration-cont.

3. I have yet to see some unbiased and concrete numbers of exactly how much money people think that the immigrant population is sucking out of our economy. The fact is that many immigrants do pay taxes but, for lack of documentation or fear of deportation, they cannot or will not apply for the services provided by those taxes. Besides that, I have already discussed the benefits we gain and the contributions they make to our economy.

4. I have also heard some people talking about the criminal activities that undocumented immigrants participate in. (I will not be addressing the idea the coming over without documents is illegal in and of itself at this time.) I have always thought this to be a myth. I always figured that they would be doing their best to stay on the right side of the law to avoid any possibility of deportation. Then there was a study done, and I was right.
"For example, among men ages 18-40 – the age group most likely to commit crime – the U.S.-born are 10 times more likely than the foreign-born to be in jail or prison. Even among non citizen men from Mexico ages 18-40 – a group disproportionately likely to have entered the United States illegally – the authors find very low rates of institutionalization. Such findings suggest that longstanding fears of immigration as a threat to public safety are unjustified.(taken from www.ppic.org)" 10 TIMES LESS LIKELY!!!

5. Those findings lead me to another topic. National Security. I could and probably will write another blog on this subject entirely, but for now, I will say that i am sick of the topic being used to instill fear in the hearts of Americans in order to manipulate public opinion and destroy public policies. Now, what does this have to do with immigration, exactly, nothing. However, it is one of the first things out of politicians mouths when discussing immigration. How can we justify building a wall? National security of course... well, OK then, why are we not talking about building a wall along the border with Canada? Studies show that it is easier to get over that border illegally anyways. Then there is the idea that terrorists are coming over the borders... these hypothesis are unfounded and ridiculous. The terrorists come in legally, with papers and passports. Don't try to use scare tactics to get my support! As stated above, immigration as a threat to public safety is a myth.

There are plenty of other disgusting myths used as propaganda to push and anti immigrant agenda. for more information check out this page: www.immigrationforum.org/documents/TheJourney/MythsandFacts.pdf