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

An email from Mark Krikorian of America's 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).

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ELSEWHERE

Muslims oppose Voltaire: "A municipal cultural center here on France's border with Switzerland organized a reading of a 265-year-old play by Voltaire, whose writings helped lay the foundations of modern Europe's commitment to secularism. The play, "Fanaticism, or Mahomet the Prophet," uses the founder of Islam to lampoon all forms of religious frenzy and intolerance. The production quickly stirred up passions that echoed the cartoon uproar. "This play ... constitutes an insult to the entire Muslim community," said a letter to the mayor of Saint-Genis-Pouilly, signed by Said Akhrouf, a French-born cafe owner of Moroccan descent and three other Islamic activists representing Muslim associations. They demanded the performance be cancelled."

A good comment on the Indian connection: "Historic is a much over-used word nowadays. But the deal concluded in New Delhi...in which George W. Bush brought India in from the diplomatic cold after decades of nuclear isolation would qualify. In effect, the U.S. agreed to tear up almost four decades worth of established counter-proliferation law and policy to accommodate a country that the president sees as one of the great powers of the 21st century. It remains to be seen how China, the other great emerging power and one of the five nuclear weapons states to have official recognition under the Non-Proliferation Treaty, will react. It was, of course, fear of China's permanent nuclear dominance over Asia that partly motivated the U.S. to accede...to most of India's wishes. There can be little doubt that Mr. Bush faces a tough battle convincing the many doubters on Capitol Hill whose approval is necessary for it to go ahead. Many will argue that the exclusion from international safeguards of India's existing fast breeder nuclear reactor-which has great fissile material-making potential-is a bridge too far. America's 'non-proliferation ayatollahs', as India calls them, are unlikely to be mollified by the inclusion of all future fast breeder reactors, since they do not yet exist."

Europe in big trouble: "The bad news from Europe is that its birth rates are low, far below the level needed to maintain the current population. The worse news is that the Europeans are not fighting it.... Germany, with the biggest economy and population in old Europe, is typical in its birthrates. The number of children per woman is currently around 1.4, or only two-thirds of the replacement rate (France and the U.K. are doing a little better, Spain and Italy a little worse). Germany's retirement age is 60, and within 25 years it is facing the prospect of three people of working age (about half actually working) supporting two people in retirement, according to the German Federal Statistical Department. Unless the Germans do something dramatic, it is unlikely that in 25 years the ratios will be even that good as emigration will be an attractive choice to the smart, overburdened young producer."

Public-sector pension crisis worsens: "While private-sector pension terminations and freezes are grabbing headlines, the situation is every bit as grave for government pension systems. Like many of the remaining traditional defined-benefit pension plans in the private sector, government pension plans are swimming in red ink. As of January 25, 2006, the National Association of State Retirement Administrators and National Council on Teacher Retirement reported an aggregate unfunded liability of nearly $296 billion for the 103 pension systems and 127 total plans in their Public Fund Survey. A 2004 analysis by Wilshire Associates put the unfunded liability as high as $366 billion."

What you always feared about charities: "A children's cancer charity that passed on less than $16,000 of more than $190,000 raised at a dinner featuring Cherie Blair has had strict conditions placed on its activities. Consumer Affairs has told the Children's Cancer Institute Australia it must inform it of any fundraising activities it intends to undertake in Victoria for the next five years. CCIA must provide full audited accounts of each fundraising effort for the next five years. The charity has also been forced to post a prominent apology on its website for the next year. It follows revelations that more than 90 per cent of money raised at the gala dinner was spent staging the event, including payment to Mrs Blair, wife of British PM Tony Blair. Multi-millionaire promoter Max Markson received $50,000. CA investigated the dinner, which was held in Melbourne in February last year, after a number of complaints. A CA spokeswoman confirmed last night that the charity had signed an undertaking to give donors accurate and timely details of its activities. The spokeswoman said that CCIA had agreed to pay a minimum of 60 per cent of money to its beneficiaries when it registered as a charity."

I have just put up a truly inspiring story on Australian Politics. If you are pro-abortion, don't read it.

For more postings, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE. Mirror sites here, here, here, here and here. On Social Security see Dick McDonald and for purely Australian news see Australian Politics (mirrored here).

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Practically all policies advocated by the Left create poverty. Leftists get the government to waste vast slabs of the country's labour-force on bureaucracy and paperwork and so load the burden of providing most useful goods and services onto fewer and fewer people. So fewer useful goods and services are produced to go around. That is no accident. The Left love the poor. The Left need the poor so that they can feel good by patronizing and "helping" them. So they do their best to create as many poor people as possible.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialistisch)

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