List Only - Why the resurgence of the immigration argument?

Why the resurgence of the immigration argument?

I am curious as to why this is suddenly again one of the hot button issues. And a lot of the division seems to be with the Republican Party itself. If I remember history correctly it was Ronald Regan who granted amnesty to illegal aliens in the 1980’s and now they want to look into a guest worker program. I am confused. I know from my personal experience that when I put an english ad in our local classifieds for a maid, I live in a high-rise and the living space is around 2800 sq.ft I offered $250 a week (they only had to come in for one day only to clean) for cleaning only, no laundry or anything like that. Ironically I only had Hispanic applicants contact me. I was wondering where all these displaced American workers are? I paid more because of the windows. There are floor to ceiling windows in every room and that alone takes about 2 hours

Public Comments

you mean to tell us you pay $1000 a month for someone to clean your house one day a week? that is absurd. I am retired and I will clean your high rise shanty for $1000 a month, heck, I will do it for $850!
all these displaced American workers are to busy complaining that they don't have a job because all the immigrants are taking them but when you offer the average American lazy boy a job and you tell him that he will be making less he will complain. or in this case if you offer him a job that is not the American can dream he wont take it and still complain that he cant get a job. this is a button issue again because drama is what makes this country what it is. and i believe as a person who was born here but of parents who weren't this country and everyone in it is a immigrant even the people born here and that even applies to the whole world everyone in it unless you can prove that you're whole family line has stayed in one country one town one city.
Generally it seems the immigrants are more willing to do jobs that out of work americans are too stubborn and lazy to do. They'll also work for less.
There has become a huge number to the point where education and services we subsidize for poor people are not only impacted in border states but in areas across the country. Then the marches came, and people focused on the huge numbers, the trends, and the expense and crime that comes with illegal immigration. Then the Senate tried to not only legalize those here but hugely expand legal immigration going forward with numbers clearly unsupportable by our schools and services, and no mechanism for funding those services. A smaller number of illegals created a smaller problem. The numbers and problem now is huge, and the employers want to make it worse to keep wages low, at the expense of American taxpayers, workers, students, sick and others who need the services we pay for. Mexico won't pay for school for its poor because it is too expensive, and their own poor are apparently not a priority there. However having us fund their education at the expense of our own children is no answer we are willing to accept.
Our government is very good at diverting attention from what is going on . On the other hand, this is an election year and the hispanic voting bloc is very large. As to the question of illegal workers, I cannot believe that out of work citizens don't want these jobs. I think that EMPLOYERS are putting out that story so they can underpay and overwork those who won't complain and not offer the same unaffordable benefits they offer to legal workers.
Because if the Senate amnesty bill passed,it would allow millions MORE people to come here from mexico,etc,putting even MORE of a strain on our social services!! Putting MORE Americans out of jobs!! Reagan's amnesty back in 1986,is the direct cause of why we are having these problems TODAY with the millions of illegals that are ALREADY in this country!!! Amnesty NEVER works!!!!!!!!!!!!! It only leads to MORE amnesty!! If you really pay as much as you SAY you do,then i don't see why some American hasn't snatched that job!!! Heck,I would do it for that much money!! Have you advertised??
That was one dumba## thing that Ronald Reagan did, good intentions dont always play out the way they are expected. The reason is that we had 9-11 happen & in case you didnt notice...we have a wide open border down south that needsa to be closed down!!!!!
Right here. I only charge $200 a day send me they info.
The Estimated Cost of Illegal Immigration Illegal alien workers may increase profits for employers, but they are costly to the American taxpayer. Most illegal aliens have low educational attainment, few skills, and they work for low wages, often in the underground economy where they pay no taxes on their earnings. Since about three million illegal aliens gained legal status in the amnesty of 1986, the flow of illegal immigration has increased, and today that population is estimated at 9-11 million illegal alien residents in the country. The former Immigration and Naturalization Service estimated that the illegal alien population was increasing by about half a million aliens per year in 2000. The Huddle Study Because the number of illegal aliens can only be estimated, similarly the fiscal cost (government budget outlays) for those aliens can only be estimated. Dr. Donald Huddle, a Rice University economics professor, published a systematic analysis of those costs as of 1996 (see table below). The study also estimated the tax payments of those same aliens. At that time, the illegal alien population was estimated to be about five million persons. The estimated fiscal cost of those illegal aliens to the federal, state and local governments was about $33 billion. This impact was partially offset by an estimated $12.6 billion in taxes paid to the federal, state and local governments, resulting in a net cost to the American taxpayer of about $20 billion every year. This estimate did not include indirect costs that result from unemployment payments to Americans who lost their jobs to illegal aliens willing to work for lower wages. Nor did it include lost tax collections from those American workers who became unemployed. The study estimated those indirect costs from illegal immigration at an additional $4.3 billion annually. During the years since that estimate, the illegal alien population is estimated to have roughly doubled, so the estimated fiscal costs also will have at least doubled. Furthermore, the passage of time is accompanied by inflation in the costs of services, e.g., school budgets continue to climb. Therefore, what was estimated to be a cost to the American taxpayer of $33 billion in 1996 today would be at least $70 billion. Similarly, tax collections would have increased — sales taxes at least — so that the net expense to the taxpayer from illegal immigration would currently be at least $45 billion. The indirect fiscal costs would have also increased, especially during a period of already high unemployment, to perhaps and additional $10 billion annually. 1996 Costs Table from the Huddle Study 1 Programs (billions) Public Education K-12 $5.85 Public Higher Education $0.71 ESL and Bilingual Education $1.22 Food Stamps $0.85 AFDC $0.50 Housing $0.61 Social Security $3.61 Earned Income Tax Credit $0.68 Medicaid $3.12 Medicare A and B $0.58 Criminal Justice and Corrections $0.76 Local Government $5.00 Other Programs $9.25 Total Costs $32.74 Less Taxes Paid $12.59 Net Costs of Direct Services $20.16 Displacement Costs $4.28 All Net Costs $24.44 Other More Recent Estimates Other estimates have been done on components of the cost of illegal immigration. For example, FAIR estimated in 2003 that the cost of K-12 education for illegal alien children was at least $7.4 billion annually (see Breaking the Piggybank). This would be less than double the about $5.9 billion estimate above, but would be of the same order of magnitude. FAIR’s 2004 report on the medical expenses incurred because of illegal immigration (see The Sinking Lifeboat) shows uncompensated costs in excess of one billion dollars. The cost of incarceration of illegal aliens in state prisons has also risen rapidly. In fiscal year ’02, the Department of Justice’s State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP) distributed $550 million to the states to help defray their expenses, but this was estimated to cover only about one fifth of their outlays. Between FY'99 and FY'02, alien detention increased by 45 percent (from about 69,300 inmate years to over 100,300 inmate years), and that trend is continuing. These expenses do not include the costs of illegal aliens incarcerated in federal prisons, public safety expenditures, detention pending trial, expenses of trial proceedings, interpretation, public defenders, or the incarceration expenses of immigrants for minor offenses that do not meet the standards of the SCAPP reimbursement program. Therefore, it is clear that outlays for Criminal Justice and Corrections costs is today much greater than double the 1996 estimate. While the cost of outlays for illegal aliens may be shifted by legislation among the levels of government and the private sector, the fact remains that illegal immigration creates an enormous fiscal burden on America and its citizens — a burden that Congress has levied upon us through short-sighted and haphazard immigration policy and succeeding administrations have aggravated by spotty enforcement of the law. A Call for Action Americans should demand that Congress and the administration work together to establish control over our borders and the interior of the country so that we have the assurance that aliens, whether immigrants or visitors, are legally present in the country. That objective is of vital importance for the sake of national security as well as for the impact on our tax bills. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Net National Costs of Immigration: Fiscal Effects of Welfare Restorations to Legal Immigrants, Donald Huddle, Rice University, 1997.
One word...politics. The republicans are desperate to maintain their base. They are losing their support for the invasion. Reforming SS blew up in bush's face. All they have going is the 'invasion'...so, why not pick on the illegals. Illegal immigration has been going on since way before the 80's..try when the border states joined the Union. America loves cheap labor. And bush is in no hurry to get rid of them. His support comes from the people that exploit them. He temporarily suspended the act that mandates a fair wage when massive reconstruction is undertaken, as in the rebuilding of New Orleans. He was happy to let the contractors hire ILLEGALS! Take care.