I do not at present entirely understand what is animating all of the angst over illegal immigration, but I am trying to understand. The main reason is that I don’t see how it impacts my life or well being and it is not clear how it might do so in the future, unless things get totally out of hand. One of the issues is economics, but the case against II based on adverse economics has not been made very well. A_Tom
Exhibit A: Los Angeles (and Phoenix, Denver, D.C.). Imagine every city having commutes like that.
Exhibit B: Simple math. 2 million immigrants a year (plus extra births) times 100 years = 300 million new people due to immigration alone.
Exhibit C: India. The labor surplus there has done them no favors. It’s not popular to say this, I know, but there are practical limits to how many people a piece of land can comfortably hold.
Exhibit D: The American Southwest. It’s an arid climate here, and how much water we’ll have is always an open question.
Exhibit E: Many groups DON’T assimilate. How well are blacks assimilating? Everywhere you look these days you see ethnic conflict. Money is a solvent, but only when there’s money around. If the money is ever interrupted, all hell breaks loose.
For some, this is no doubt just a fig leaf to hide their basic prejudice, but no one can estimate the size of this group because no one will admit to simply being opposed to immigrants in general.
Bad actors can be found on evey side. What about the La Raza ("The Race") types who just want more people here who look like them? Aren’t they racists? What about the socialists who want more far-left voters in the country? That’s not wrong? And what about the CoC types who want to redirect wealth from the poor to the rich by increasing the amount of cheap labor available? They’re not rather vile?
A_Tom: assume the worst about those of us who want to reduce immigration. Assume it’s not our concern for the environment, the working class, the political future of the country, the quality of life for our children. Assume, instead, that it’s just vile, awful racism. Assume we don’t like brown-skinned people. Is that better or worse than the wealthy interests that want to pay their workers less and less?
Immigrants, after all, already have a country - the one they’re leaving. As Americans, we only have this one - because Mexico, India, China, and Ireland wouldn’t be near as welcoming to us as we are to their people. Racism is just a feeling, but bringing people here, like the CoC wants to do, to keep other people poor is out-and-out theft.
