Two Sides of the Same Coin: The Connection Between Legal and Illegal Immigration

An email from Mark Krikorian of CIS:

“Legal immigration good, illegal immigration bad.” This is often the limit of the analysis underlying debates over immigration in Congress. Supporters of amnesty and guestworker programs often claim that if only illegal aliens were legalized, the problems they create would disappear. In addition, many of the immigration proposals currently being considered would significantly increase ordinary legal immigration; Sen. Arlen Specter’s bill, for instance, would double the number of green cards issued, to as many as 2 million each year.

To add some depth to this superficial understanding of the issue, the Center for Immigration Studies has released a new report, Two Sides of the Same Coin: The Connection Between Legal and Illegal Immigration by James R. Edwards, Jr., Ph.D. Edwards, an adjunct fellow at the Hudson Institute and co-author of The Congressional Politics of Immigration Reform, explores the intertwined histories of legal and illegal immigration and how current immigration policy encourages lawbreaking. The report, available online here , finds the following:

* Legal and illegal immigration are inextricably related. As legal immigration levels have risen markedly since 1965, illegal immigration has increased with it.

* The share of the foreign-born population who are illegal aliens has risen steadily. Illegal aliens made up 21 percent of the foreign-born in 1980, 25 percent in 2000, and 28 percent in 2005.

* Mexico is the primary source country of both legal and illegal immigrants. Mexico accounted for about 30 percent of the foreign-born in 2000, and more than half of Mexicans residing in the United States in 2000 were illegal aliens.

* The level of illegal immigration is severely masked by several amnesties that legalized millions of unlawfully resident aliens. The largest amnesty was the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act, which legalized 3 million aliens.

* Amnestied aliens to date have been fully eligible to sponsor additional immigrants. This has contributed to the ranks of immigrants, both legal and illegal (and often both).

Posted by jonjayray on Friday, March 10, 2006 at 07:29 AM in Immigration
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Comments:

Posted by Ben Tillman on March 10, 2006, 02:49 PM | #

Sen. Arlen Specter’s bill, for instance, would double the number of green cards issued, to as many as 2 million each year.

Here we witness an immunodeficiency virus at work. Two million pathogens are to be admitted to our erstwhile community.

Posted by Ben Tillman on March 10, 2006, 02:51 PM | #

Two million per year, that is.

Posted by JRM on March 10, 2006, 03:57 PM | #

Most of the arguments used against illegal immigration can also be applied to legal immigration. The exception is the national security argument which can not be used against legal immigration IF proper screening mechanisms are in place. That, of course, doesn’t appear to be the case. The Minutemen have a noble goal: secure the borders. Their existence draws attention to the abdication of national security by the federal government. The only response the other side can give to the national security argument is that it can’t be done. That response is weak. Thus the Minutemen present a powerful argument against illegal immigration.

The reason why the Minutemen have attracted such vilification is some of their arguments against illegal immigration: crime, wage depression, loss of jobs, can also be used against legal immigration. Officially, they don’t have a position against legal immigration. But the arguments can be carried over with little change in substance. The Minutemen are the thin end of the wedge which can be used to stop immigration. Once their viewpoint on national security gains traction, it opens up other arguments and ideas. It is unlikely that the political compromise will rest at stopping illegal immigration and allowing legal immigration. It will go beyond that. Both the leaders of the Minutemen and the opposition are far more aware than they let on to be.

Posted by Al Ross on March 10, 2006, 08:34 PM | #

Well, we all know that the objective of Arlen Specter and his fellow Israelites is the dimunition of White American numbers. It is, I fear, too late to alter America’s fate in this regard. The ruinous Marxoid message about race and nationhood which the Jews peddle to dumb goyim (whilst sensibly eschewing it in Israel) has wrought irreparable damage on the US.

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