More illegal immigrants, please.
Popular as illegal-immigration raids are, plenty of studies have shown that immigrants (legal or not) are a boon to the U.S. economy. But in certain areas the benefits can be, shall we say, a little more direct ... Check out this Town Talk article, titled "Immigrant-detainee facility brings economic boost for Jena's economy":
JENA -- Tuesday morning's humidity couldn't dampen the positive attitude of Jena Mayor Murphy McMillin as he spoke at a ceremony to commemorate the grand opening of the LaSalle Detention Facility.
McMillin outlined the economic benefits of the immigrant-detainee facility, located at 830 Pinehill Road in Jena, to a crowd of state and local officials as well as other onlookers. These benefits include an approximately $1 million boost in property taxes and an estimated $60 million impact in "new money chasing goods and services."
McMillin quipped that the money brought in by The GEO Group, the facility's owner and second-largest operator of prison systems in the world, made him very happy.
"We would invite any kind of expansion," he continued, breaking off into a chuckle.
And yes, it's that Jena.
The LA Times is basically ....a LIAR and a propaganda garbage machine.
"Popular as illegal-immigration raids are, plenty of studies have shown that immigrants"
This proves it..."Immigrants in the same sentence as ILLEGAL ALIENS".
I am an immigrant and NOT an ILLEGAL ALIEN/ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT/UNDOCUMENTED criminal, or any other code word you like to associate me with.
Let's pray for the END of the LA TIMES. We HATE YOU!
Posted by: Mike | December 03, 2008 at 10:32 PM
Is the LA TIMES on CRACK? Or are they SO detached from the reality of LA that they can't hear the millions of LEGAL CITIZENS praying for the demise of the Times?
We HATE you, DESPISE you, and find your to be a treaterous enemy of American citizens and legal immigrants,
I grew up with the Times and NEVER thought I would see the day when my own Newspaper would turn on Americans.
I pray also for the immediate demise of the Mexican Times. You have become trash.
Posted by: Dissapear | December 03, 2008 at 10:23 PM
We are allowing the government to frame the immigration problem for us. We must consider that in some cases, such as here, the government is not acting in our own individual best interest.
Thus, the term "illegal" associated with "alien" or "immigrant" is one of the government's invention.
What we as individuals must do is look at the problem from our own perspective. It is my understanding that this has not been done very often and has not been heralded very effectively.
The reality is that foreign nationals are in every recognized nation worldwide, creating a nearly fully integrated polyglot. To somehow require all these people to get their "papers in order" with respect to the local laws of each country is crazy.
There has to be a better, more accommodating, and global solution. Like a national identity card that is accepted worldwide. This different than a passport and should be a smart card with various data on it relevant to the bearer and the country he or she hails from.
Take a look at the end-to-end treatment of the immigration problem that has been prepared by Trigon-International, Inc. This is actionable, affordable, and feasible and more aptly it addresses the problem in situ meaning that the fix goes in without having to reset the pieces on the game board.
Posted by: Leighton L. Smith | October 29, 2008 at 04:32 PM
"Popular as illegal-immigration raids are, plenty of studies have shown that immigrants (legal or not) "
MORE LA TIMES ILLEGAL ALIEN propaganda!
Legal IMMIGRANTS are NOT, have NOT EVER been an issue.
The ISSUE is parasitic tens of millions of THIRD WORLD ILLEGAL ALIEN CRIMMINALS...and they ALL are crimminals.
I am SOOOO glad the LA TIMES is falling into a financial BLACK HOLE. The sooner the better. Most CITIZENS in LA despise it!
Posted by: Chico | July 16, 2008 at 01:12 PM
Articles like this make me sick. It's no wonder this state, the good state of California is collapsing from the inside out. If people, especially the evil fools in the media who feed us lies like this every day continue to do so, this state will declare bankruptcy or will become so overrun with scummy illegals that America will GIVE IT BACK TO MEXICO! I will laugh when I am moved far away and CA is handed back with all the illegals, hippies, yuppies and whiney liberals screaming for mercy as Mexico takes control. People will be shot in the streets and it won't be because of gang warfare. Legal immigrants come here to make better lives by assimilating to our society...they don't BRING their 3rd world poverty-stricken ideals here and EXPECT to be accomodated. But you the fools are just giving them what they want - a free ride, free healthcare, free anchorbabies, free money....all at the cost of America's LEGAL children...because they are going to have to deal with the effects poor government decisions are causing today. So a big F*CK YOU to those who love illegals. Oh and piss on Los Angeles too...the giant ghetto of California!!
Posted by: Laura from Nor Cal | June 22, 2008 at 03:01 PM
Illegal aliens are a boon to the rich. And the rich wanna bees. No one else. No honest hardworking taxpaying, middleclass American, in any blue collar or laborer has ever benefitted from mass wage depression that is caused by illegal aliens, and they never will. Shame on the L.A. Times for constantly turning a blind eye to what the know is true. The L.A. Times is not made up of stupid people. That is why, on reporting on illegal immigration,--the Times is GUILTY AS CHARGED.
Posted by: Bobby | June 15, 2008 at 01:53 PM
Illegal activity may be good for an economy in the short run, but when it becomes rampant and ubiquitious (as it is in Mexico, for instance) illegal activity makes a nation corrupt and lawless. Ask the 40 or so wealthy Mexican families who keep their wealth imprisoned and off limits to the good it might do its nation and the millions who are leaving Mexico in droves to spread yet more corruption and lawlessness into America. In short, I don't care if these third world invaders are giving the U.S. a bit of an economic lift (which I doubt). I care far more about maintaining the rule of law in America than the rule of expediency and greed. We have laws which state that illegal immigrants and those who overstay their visas are to be deported. Why are those laws not being more vigorously enforced?
Posted by: simplyillegal | June 13, 2008 at 09:27 AM
Guess you would say that daily bombardment of the Internet, shows that
illegal immigration is a volatile issue that isn't going away. Our
politicians promised 'No more Amnesties' after the 1986 Simpson/Mazzoli
Immigration control act. But Ultra Liberal Ted Kennedy lied to the American
people. Right now anti-illegal advocates are battling to bring the Federal
Save Act (H.R.4088) to a vote, because like potentate speaker Nancy Pelosi
trying to dismantle the original plans of the border fence. This Democratic
lady and her minions are intimidating her moderate people not to sponsor
this piece of legislation.
The author fails to mention that ALIPAC, NUMBERSUSA, AMERICAN PATROL,
LIBERTY POST, GRASSFIRE,IMMIGRATION NEWS INDEXER, doesn't have the benefit
of big business and the special interest lobby financing them. The soul
donors to all the pro-sovereignty, anti-illegal immigrant organizations is
the general public.
Our main problem now is potential President Obama stated in a previous
speech, he would offer a path to citizenship. Which means a massive
AMNESTY, for all the illegal aliens, who ignored our laws. The newspapers
restrict information about the carnage within our communities and on the
highways, by the criminal element that have also entered through our highly
deceptive line--the government calls a border. Yet another deceptive
report, is the numbers of illegal foreign nationals that have entered here.
May be 5 years ago it was perhaps, 12 million. But today UNIPAC has
estimated that the illegal population is at least 30 million.
Has anybody taken into consideration if another AMNESTY passes, what are
going to be the ramifications of this law? It will mean an immediate rush
towards the border, from either Canada or Mexico because they will be
expecting a third AMNESTY...?
It's not bigotry or the race card..its about saving our way of life, the
quality of life. It about millions of poor, illiterate people suddenly
legal, able to steal the jobs of own poverty stricken citizens. The single
Mums with children, homeless veterans back from an ugly war along with the
sick and infirm and of course senior citizens. Would you not call it
discrimination, when a Teacher with tenure loses her job because she
doesn't speak Spanish.
If you listen to the pro-illegal immigration business funded groups, who
talk about that it will be great for the economy? Perhaps you might ask an
ailing California; a 'Sanctuary State' that has become a haven for illegal
immigrants. Then read about Arizona that has shown a remarkable economic
comeback, as illegal aliens have been fleeing owing to its new harsh
employer sanction laws.
Overpopulation, congestion, urban sprawl, pollution, Water shortages,
environmental damage, crime, diminishing resources, Diseases, lack of
affordable housing, depressed wages, underground economic, fraudulent
documents, identity theft, tax evasion, soaring crime rate, increased tax
burdens, overcrowded schools, uneducated children, overcrowded prisons,
inadequate health care, the balkanization of our communities and a large
and growing population with loyalty to other Nations. The overall decline
in our quality of life are the result of unrestrained illegal immigration!
America cannot accept the worlds destitute population of other countries.
Criminals, Undesirables and Uneducated people. Too many people chasing too
few resources is not sound economic, social or cultural policy. This is not
racism but pragmatism & common sense!
Every industrialized nation has taken steps to end illegal immigration and
to limit legal immigration to only that which is prudent, demonstrably
necessary, and above al! l other concerns, in the best interest of their
native population. Its insane to suggest that America should not do
likewise! England and Australia have adopted a points system, when it comes
to immigration. You are just not going to get a working visa, unless you
have valuable skills to offer that nation.
If we enact the SAVE ACT (H.R.4088) as an enforcement tool against illegal
foreign nationals. Then they repatriate their person by ATTRITION. After
that then we could adopt an orderly guest worker program, with no legal
right to being a citizen. However, guest workers would receive a special
preferences, but first must return to their home country. But then they
could apply for legal residence. This is the way it must be...?
American patriots have beaten just by sheer numbers, each time a new
AMNESTY has arrived into Washington for a vote. We must keep fighting,
because the alternative is to be flooded with illegal foreign nationals,
who know how to tap the welfare safety net, originally awarded to citizens
and legal residents. If you believe for one minute that illegal foreigners
don't know how to collect food stamps, because you must have legal status.
Then how come the government extracts secretly squeezes 356 billion dollars
billion dollars to support the invaders? Yet even that doesn't cover the
costs to taxpayers, when you realize this should be the weighty burden that
pariah business should be accountable for? Then can you imagine the strain
on the Social Security system and pension for seniors?
The only way working class Americans are going to hold onto their jobs, is
to demand their Democratic representatives endorse the SAVE ACT. Because it
doesn't matter what your country of origin, businesses will take the
easiest route to profits. All of us will suffer under the globalist open
border, free trade agenda as they are in Europe. Today! It's a fight to
keep our sovereignty against bad free market agreements. It's a ongoing
battle against the momentum of overpopulation.
If small state laws like in Oklahoma and Arizona, has seen a definite
change as thousands of foreign nationals have packed their bags and fled
elsewhere. Just think what the all encompassing federal SAVE ACT (H.R.4088)
could do for your states future?
Posted by: B Bob | June 13, 2008 at 06:25 AM
Sums it up. We are in trouble! Report on fiscal damage by the illegals.
www.esrresearch.com/Rubensteinreport.pdf
The slowdown has been great for us. We just had a neighborhood meeting and everyone agreed. Our neighborhood has improved dramatically. Why? The number of illegals have dropped dramatically.
Posted by: Fred Vasio | June 13, 2008 at 05:54 AM
The studies show that the economies did increase, but the when broken down by per capita it decreased. All it means is that now have a lot more people and they live in poverty.
Here's an extreme example to make the point. Say we allow 1 billion Chinese into the US and pay them $10 a day. We would increase our economy by $10 billion a day or by $3.5 trillion per year. But we would have extreme slums that covered the bulk of the country, since the bulk of our population lives on $10 day.
So when someone says allowing 20 million illegals into the country is a boon, think again. It's not.
Posted by: Henry Rotega | June 13, 2008 at 04:15 AM
Mexico is land rich in natural resources; what makes it so socially and economically poor are its Mexican People; and wherever they immigrate they bring their deplorable civilization with them. It is so inferior than none of them want to return to it.
The Mexican dream of regaining political control over Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California is America’s worst nightmare. Starting at all of the border towns, and spreading northward throughout America, like cancers, are thousands of deplorable Mexican neighborhoods.
Posted by: Jeugenen | June 12, 2008 at 06:40 PM
I guess I could make the case for immigrants the way most do by listing the many different degrading jobs they do for the even more degrading wages they do them for, how they are the base of the service industry and so on. I agree that that is a tired route of defense, but it’s pretty much the only one can make when one can’t measure the output of immigrants due to the majority of it being handled under the table, by hypocrites like ed.
Speculations, and “clever” phrases like that of M.A. Andrews are like sound-bites from fox news; hollow, misleading and lame at best. The fact is immigrants are here and surviving because there is a demand for them, there is merit in their being here, provided by people like andrews and ed and their clever musings. This great American Machine is oiled by the blood of immigrants (that ones for you Andrews, go take a creative writing class at the CC and come back with something better than “La Raza Kool-aid”).
You’re like a pimple on my taint ed and andrews… yeah you can take that one out editor… just leave the previous…
~Velasco, Son of Immigrants
Posted by: Velasco | June 12, 2008 at 12:11 PM
Illegal Immigrants are not a boon to our economy. They are a constant DRAIN and total disreagard of US Laws.
More raids need to happen and US company's need to step up and do the right thing in NOT hiring Illegals
Posted by: Jim Holloway | June 12, 2008 at 11:58 AM
After careful review, anyone with a even a modicum of logic can come to no other conclusion: illegal immigration must be halted, illegal immigrants here now must be deported and legal immigration needs decreased from the approx. 2 million allowed in per year currently.
Please review the following report on the FISCAL COST OF IMMIGRATION by economist Edwin Rubenstein released in April 2008:
http://www.esrresearch.com/Rubensteinreport.pdf
A partial summary of the report:
The impact on 15 Federal Departments surveyed was: $346 billion in fiscal related costs in FY 2007.
Each immigrant cost taxpayers more than $9,000 per year.
An immigrant household (2 adults, 2 children) cost taxpayers $36,000 per year.
Legal immigrants were not separated out from illegal immigrants for the fiscal impact study, but if they had been, the fiscal cost per ILLEGAL immigrant would be even more shocking than the figures quoted above.
The most extensive and authoritative study, prior to economist Edwin Rubenstein's "The Fiscal Impact of Immigration" (April 2008) , is the National Research Council (NRC)’s The New Americans: Economic, Demographic and Fiscal Effects of Immigration (1997).
The NRC staff analyzed federal, state, and local government expenditures on programs such as Medicaid, AFDC (now TANF), and SSI, as well as the cost of educating immigrants’ foreign- and native-born children.
NRC found that the average immigrant household receives $13,326 in federal annual expenditures and pays $10,664 in federal taxes—that is, they generate a fiscal deficit of $2,682 (1996 dollars)per household.
In 2007 dollars this is a deficit of $3,408 per immigrant household.
With 9 million households currently headed by immigrants, more than $30 billion ($3,408 x 9 million) of the federal deficit represents money transferred from native taxpayers to immigrants.
Our national immigration policies have to work for the United States. While improving the plight of the world’s poor is a laudable goal, the finite resources we have available to fulfill that goal would be swamped if there wasn’t some orderly and manageable system in place to limit entry into the United States to what this nation can actually support. The more illegal aliens that are permitted to subvert the immigration system, the fewer immigrants we can accommodate who might actually produce a positive benefit for our country.
The more we become a nation of illegal immigrants, the deeper we fall into anarchy.
Posted by: zeezil | June 12, 2008 at 11:43 AM
Heroin and prostitution are technically "good" for the economy too... but those weren't mentioned in your article?
Posted by: ed | June 12, 2008 at 05:37 AM
Blog ju-jitsu
Not even according to your own sources is immigration a 'boon to the economy'. Here's the key quote from page 24 of the CFR report by Hanson you link to
Best to go back to the penile-cancer stories.
Posted by: Mitchell Young | June 12, 2008 at 05:08 AM
The failing LAT is graspingf at straws as it
continues to carry the torch for Illegal Aliens.
Stop drinking the La Raza Koolaid.
And realise that the Criminal Employers and La Raza
politicians Party is coming to an end.
Posted by: M.A.Andrews | June 11, 2008 at 11:06 PM
In one year Orange County spent 400 million dollars on foodstamps,HUD housing,WIC,Medical etc on illegal aliens.Doesn't sound like a "boon" to me.More like a catastrophic tympanneum of illegal Mexicus screwing the American publicus.
Posted by: dharc | June 11, 2008 at 07:56 PM