Cost of immigration? What about the war?

Question

The National Research Council has estimated that the net fiscal cost of all immigration (legal and illegal) ranges from $11 billion to $22 billion per year.

The current cost of the war in Iraq is $432,265,000,000 and counting since March 20th, 2003 when the invasion began. For the mathematically challenged thats over 100 Billion dollars a year not to mention the lives of over 3000 American soldiers.

Many of you Y/A posters are on here vehemently challenging and complaining about how much illegals are costing us yet you give the pass to the war which cost 5 to 10 times more. I don't know about you but if the wind blew a dollar out of my hand in one direction and a dime fell and rolled the other direction, I would go after the dollar first.

IMO most of you pro-war, anti-immigration types are chasing the dime. Your thoughts?

Sources Here:
http://www.cis.org/topics/costs.html
http://www.costofwar.com/

Ret. Sgt., Keep in mind that President Bush supports both the war and the immigration bill. With the war being the fatter of the checks he is asking for, I question why fiscal conservatives are attacking the lesser of the two. But lets put it simply. $100 Billion yearly to prop up Iraqis - No return. $22 Billion yearly for immigrants in this country to eventually become tax paying productive citizens. Guaranteed return. Whats the problem?

But Cyclops, Bush and a majority of the congress support the immigration reform bill. Most of them have educated themselves on the issue to a larger degree then the general public. Why do conservative voters choose the money angle as opposition when there are bigger fiscal fish to fry?

Answer 1

This is by far one of the most intelectual and best questions I have read. I will put my best foot forward to give you my thoughts.

I have questioned why the thought of Immigration became a concern when the cost of the war was so much greater then that of what it would cost for immigration reform. The war has cost us how much? President Bush want's how much now... I think he said somewhere in the Trillions is what he proposed for the next 8 years. With all of this immigration has come up. humm why?

This Country has been a purist country. We know that, they know that. Purist meaning, they want to remain pure blooded, Euroamericans. In the melting-pot of the world I don't see how, but I think that unfortunately plays a role to this day. If we look back to segregation, it wasn't that long ago. During the 1930's Great Depression era President Hoover enacted the Repatriation Act in which millions of Mexican and Mexican American Citizens were illegally deported. Mexicans became a scapegoat to what was happening around the country. The cause of the Great Depression was later, to many, thought of as too many Mexicans taking our jobs!

I do believe the Mexican people fall prey to scapegoating. They are a large majority here in this country and if something goes wrong, it's easy to blame a group of people who are thought of as having poor education, taking advantage of the system etc... we all know the stereotypes. When in reality, statistics show, even illegal immigrants pay taxes, they pay into medicare and social security but as of 1986 could no longer receive welfare if they were undocumented. Statistics show more than half of the peoples on welfare are "white" americans not Mexicans. Mexicans are an easy prey, there border is the neighboring country. Why not keep them out? Why not make "them" the issue to keep peoples minds off the REAL issue.

Just as during the Great Depression, people thought Mexicans were the cause of no jobs, no food, but in reality if was the stock market crash that led to these effects. Inevitably the Mexican people who did not speak the language were blamed.

There is a fear of more Mexican people, eventually more rights which leads to voting. What will they vote? Probably Democrat... so with a Republican President this may be a way to keep the people majority Republican if it can be possible. Also as close to the "whiter" race. Of course if people from Europe or Canada started immigrating in large numbers yet blended well, did so, i'm sure it wouldn't be such a threat!

I go for the people!

Answer 2

Why do we have to do one or the other. Why does it have to be that we accept immigration as it is.

It wont happen, but if there was no war going on, would this still be a dime pro war types are chasing. How to we know what the costs are for illegal aliens. The definition itself implies the information would be unknown. The National Research Council may not have all the facts in or may have an agenda, I don't know. The cost of either of these things are very high.

If you were on a monetary diet and was told you could only have 100 billion calories a years, would it also be OK to ask for 22 Billion more in desert.Something will give one way or the other.

Answer 3

Some people will always look at the small picture (illegal immigrants), while ignoring the big picture. The NeoCon "New World Order" policy of corporate welfare - Tax breaks for sending jobs overseas under the guise of spreading their brand of "Democracy".
This policy historically has always lead to more immigration (illegal and legal), and less money spent in the US for domestic needs - we are shooting ourselves in the foot by not realizing this. In the past, most wars made money & brought jobs to the USA - this changed with this war, the corporations are now using forien owned companies, or sending business to off-shore tax shelter companies, that benefit the wealth few. The end results = more $ for the powerful few and less oppertunities, jobs, $, and services for the working middle class and those struggling to get by.
Yet we still vote for these fear mongering Neocon types, because they know how to direct your anger at others, while making promises they will never keep. They have their agenda down - and it works like a charm.

Answer 4

If you're in the "immigration" section, that's probably the reason you see more people discussing immigration. I think that they are both important. I wouldn't agree that the war in Iraq is 10 x more important. Illegal immigration costs us more than just money. On top of our high numbers of legal immigration, illegal immigration is just putting an even larger strain on our resources and causes excess water and air pollution. It has enough effects on the environment that I don't think it should be ignored! If the population continues to rise at the rate it does now, we're not going to have any nature left. We need more schools, hospitals, housing, roads, etc. as the population grows. It will all be paved over. I think this is a very important issue!

Answer 5

Who would have guessed this question came from a conservative. Why do you let arrogant " intellectuals ", usually only in their own minds, bother you. Rush limbaugh once said anyone that disagrees with the war in Iraq is not intelligent enough to discus it. I know quite a few people that think they are very intelligent, yet have no common sense at all.

Answer 6

Its about more than money. But if you are mentioning money. yes the cost of immigration now is an issue, but its about the cost of immigration in the future which is only going to grow to much larger amounts.

Answer 7

Nice try , but deflection of the issue of illegal immigration, only
works on the dull witted.