Principle of Economics
Friedrich Hayek
Research Report No. 1
December 2011
Two sides of a coin:
Exploiting two sides of illegal immigration effect on U.S
By
Yeonkyung Compean
Two sides of a coin
Exploiting two sides of illegal immigration effect on U.S
By Y. Compean
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Abstract ........................................................................................................................................3
Chapter One – Introduction ...................................................................................................4
I.
Statement of Research Interest ....................................................................................... 4
II.
Definition of the Research Thesis................................................................................... 4
III.
Expected Findings and Significance of Research ..................................................... 5
IV.
Methodology .......................................................................................................................... 6
Chapter Two: Background Informations ......................................................................... 7
I.
Definition of the Illegal Immigrants .............................................................................. 7
II.
Historical Background of the Illegal Immigration ................................................... 8
III.
Demographic background of illegal immigrants. ................................................. 10
Chapter Three- Issues raised by illegal immigrants & collaterals ....................... 13
I.
Issues regarding illegal immigrants in United States and analysis .............. 13
Chapter Four- Conclusions ................................................................................................. 20
I.
Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 20
II.
Appendix & Bibliography ............................................................................................. 23
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December 2011
Comments are welcome
Two sides of a coin:
Exploiting two sides of illegal immigration effect on U.S
Abstract
This dissertation examines the turmoil and strife of the controversial issue of illegal
immigration in United States. History of United States began and ends with immigration to
U.S soil. Incessant immigrants from all over the world have built what is called the United
States nowadays. However, at the same time, issues regarding new immigrants started to
rise after 1795, among original population regarding admittance of new population. People
who could not meet the requirement started to land on U.S. under the radar of U.S.
government and their status in U.S. was and is what is called ‘illegal immigrants.’
Original population began to worry about scarcity of their resources including
remaining number of job openings, wages, and public resources. In addition to the resource
issues, people’s concern spread to other social issues such as crime. Since, officially, illegal
immigrants were not under control of the U.S. government, people started to fear that
illegal immigrants might engage in unlawful activities more than those of people who are
under government’s radar.
In this thesis, the purpose is opted to disclose whether people’s concern regarding
issues mentioned above is based on legitimate reasoning or just a pure myth of unknown.
In order to uncover the socioeconomic role of illegal immigrants within the United
States, analogical methods will be used to generate the result as well as to assess legitimacy
of rationale behind known aspects of following three major issues:



Change in wages and job distribution with corresponding Impacts
Government spending & public costs on illegal immigrants
Illegal immigrant population engaged in crime
Listed issues will be assessed in an analytical manner to deduce explicit notion in
conclusion part of the paper.
Yeonkyung Compean
University of Rochester
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Chapter One
Introduction
I. Statement of Research Interest
Issues regarding illegal immigration have been controversial in our society
including being one of the most controversial topics of political issues. Known sides1 of the
issue regarding illegal immigrants’ effect in the U.S society has been controversial over a
century.
After adopting Immigration Act2 of 1924, (Pub. L. 68-139, 43 Stat. 153, enacted May
26, 1924) throughout 1900’s, the U.S. government’s ceaseless effort to legislate restrictions
on constant influx of immigrating population to U.S. began.
It is expected that illegal immigration has impact on U.S economy. Like any other
issues, there are two major streams to the core of the issue, also known as “pros and Cons”
or “yay or nay,” but the reasoning behind both sides varies. On this reports, scope of the
range will only be pertaining to those issues regarding economic issues. The goal of the
research paper is to show result from studies on each major points3 regarding economic
effect regarding illegal immigration in U.S.
II. Definition of the Research Thesis
This thesis will analyze some of the issues over amnesty towards illegal immigrants
in regards their effect on U.S. economy. In order to analyze these issues, first, I will study
issues regarding economic and social concerns regarding illegal immigrants. Then I will
compare research data and statistics regarding illegal immigration issues and sociopolitical economic situations. Then, I will compare the gathered data and statistics over
major issues those will be specified in latter chapter in order to have better understanding
in first, whether illegal immigration regarding subject matter has impact on U.S. economy
and second if reasoning behind each claims had any fallacy in the process of establishing
results. The results of this research will yield information that can help develop future
policies to benefit the U.S. population including both illegal and legal citizens and the U.S
economy issue in general.
Illegal Immigration Statistics. "Illegal Immigrants Pros and Cons – What You Should Know." 15 July 2010.
Illegal Immigration Statistics. Illegal Immigration Statistics.
http://www.illegalimmigrationstatistics.org/category/pro-illegal-immigration-statistics/. 1 December 2011.
<http://www.illegalimmigrationstatistics.org/illegal-immigrants-pros-and-cons-%E2%80%93-what-youshould-know/>.
2 Goverment, U.S. "The Immigration Act of 1924 (The Johnson-Reed Act)." 1924. U.S. Department of state Office of the historian. Document. 1 December 2011. <http://history.state.gov/milestones/19211936/ImmigrationAct>.
3 Wage and Impacts, crime rates, net cost in terms of social services, (education, public service, tax issues) Job
distribution, change in Supply and Demand, and subfields accordingly.
1
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Scope of the research is to analyze socioeconomic effect generated by illegal
immigrants within United States because I believe that if we find adequate conclusion to
each issues, not only will we find a way to have better understanding in issues objectively
instead of being led to biased conclusion. The result of this thesis will also help to find a
way to understand the U.S. economy in regarding field. The information might also give
somewhat relative ideas to countries that are also having illegal immigrant issues, such as
Switzerland or E.U.
In addition to examining some of the major controversy, this thesis will also provide
some background information over issues regarding illegal immigration in United States.
This information will be followed by a profile on social situation of United States, sketching
the cultural and political side of some major claims4 and explanation of the implications
and consequences of illegal immigration. I will also discuss the role of the U.S.
government’s control over policies on immigration and unintended consequences derived
from it. Finally, I will conclude the thesis by stating analytic result and supporting reasons.
III. Expected Findings and Significance of Research
It is true that there are numerous approaches even within a same field and result
can vary. However, this thesis will focus on using economics approach to topics. The
outcome will depend on data and statistics which can easily be presented in numerical
system. The analysis on outcomes will be pertaining to the interpretation of numbers from
data, which will also be shown in graphs and charts.
First, it is very easy to commit fallacy of composition5 and division6. It is true that
most social science fields are hard to make definitive conclusion since it requires human
behaviors which are impossible to be foreseen. Therefore, researches conducted in social
science field are rather eclectic. For this very reason, conclusions from same data can draw
various conclusions and can easily be biased towards their own consideration. Second, an
often time, syllogistic fallacy of the undistributed middle7 is commonly committed by many.
Making logical chain links from data needs to be examined thoroughly to avoid such
mistakes. To avoid mistakes, the thesis will not provide any other assumptions or ideas
which are not accurate data. As it was mentioned earlier, research will conclude in eclectic
manner by leaving possibilities for other viewpoints and not imposing any personal
opinions derived from data.
Wage and Impacts, Job distribution, Crime rates and Cost to the public which are listed in Chapter 3.
fallacy of composition arises when one infers that something is true of the whole from the fact that it is true
of some part of the whole, fallacy of division occurs when one reasons logically that something true of a thing
must also be true of all or some of its parts.—. Wikipedia. n.d. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.,. website. 23
November 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallacy_of_composition>.—. Wikipedia. n.d. Inc., Wikimedia
Foundation. website. 13 August 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallacy_of_division>.
6 van Eemeren, Frans H and Rob Grootendorst. "The fallacies of composition and division." 1992.
www.illc.uva.nl/j50/contribs/eemeren/eemeren.ps. Report.
7 The fallacy of the undistributed middle is a logical fallacy, and more specifically a formal fallacy, that is
committed when the middle term in a categorical syllogism is not distributed in the major premise. It is thus a
syllogistic fallacy.—. Wikipedia. n.d. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.,. website. 24 November 2011.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallacy_of_the_undistributed_middle>.
4
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What I expect my findings will also uncover is that illegal immigration issues in
United States has been encountering additional obstacles, namely, the policies that might
lead the issue to face unintended consequences in addition to consequences that are
already derived by major issues in U.S. economy including social aspect as well.
To understand the difference in premise on each side, examining each viewpoint’s
reasoning and data used in their development of argument. To stay within the scope of the
range of the paper, I will narrow down data that are relevant to social and economic issues
only. It is to be expected that some political viewpoints are inevitable to discuss since the
subject matter is adjacent to political issues but on this thesis, political issues will be
excluded when evaluating validity in reasoning behind arguments of each sides.
To demonstrate ration developed from data, given procedure8 will be used to
evaluate its aptitude of its annotation regarding topics as a tool for precaution.
All in all, I expect my findings will provide sufficient conclusion by making adequate
logical connotation between provided data and topics.
IV. Methodology
The methodology for this thesis involves a straightforward socioeconomic approach that the
scope of the range might interface with some political issues. For the purpose of the dissertation, I
will analyze the numbers in data in strict scientific manner which is will conclude analytic result
impartial from personal standpoint and disregard other factors that might interfere with analysis.
Assuming resources from public data are impartial and untempered, following steps will be
considered to compute analytic result from given data.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
8
Make notion for background data related to the subject in numerical terms
such as ratio, or percentage.
Contemplate data into affiliated categories by background intersections– i.e.
timeline, ethnicity etc.
Relationship between data can only be created when the comparisons are
within the same category.
The notion of logical reasoning should be clarified to evaluate accuracy in
result.
Empirical evidences might be consideration but not in absolute degree.
Relationship between supply and demand must be presented in graphs.
Referring to methodology in IV, in Chapter 2.
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Chapter Two
Background Information on illegal immigration and socioeconomics
Predicament of Unite States
I. Definition of the Illegal Immigrants
The terminology ‘Immigrants’ can be ambiguous since United Sates is a land of
immigrants. It is important that we clarify what we define as ‘immigrants’ on this thesis. To
define range of the research, it is important to know what we define as ‘immigrant’ here.
The concept ‘immigrants’ has started with the history of the United States but we will limit
our use of term within certain range. For the purpose of defining the range of the research
scope, the following rules are applied:
1.
2.
3.
The historical timeline will be limited to after the concept of ‘National
Citizenship9’ has established in 1790. Not the ones granted by state10 level.
Term ‘illegal immigrants’ will be limited to the after immigration exclusion
era11 begun, starting from May 6, 1882.
Events that are not relevant to socioeconomic approach will not be specified
regardless of its importance.
To eliminate possibilities of inexactitude, scope of time period regarding the
research has been extended to the furthest possible. However, it will not consider
irrelevant timeline might be disregarded with adequate explanation, as thesis proceeds.
Aside from historical terminology, the usage of the term, illegal immigrants, have
certain attribute. Also known as illegal aliens, undocumented resident or undocumented
aliens etc., the conventional usage of term applies to a person who is:
“Considered an ‘alien’, a ‘non-citizen’ who has entered the U.S. without government
permission or stayed beyond the termination date of a visa”12
Illegal immigrants can be divided into three major categories.
1) Those that entered the country illegally meaning that they did not pass through
proper inspection at the border or entry – i.e. underground tunnel, over the fence.
2) Those that stayed beyond the authorized period (with expired visa) after their legal
entry.
3) By violating the terms of their legal entry – i.e. working without residency card or
work visa. (H-1 VISA)13
The original [1790 Alien Naturalization Act] provided the first rules to be followed by all of the United States
in the granting of national citizenship.
10 Under the Articles of Confederation [Enacted in 1781 and Replaced by the Constitution in 1788], the
question of citizenship and the naturalization of immigrants remained with the individual states.
11 —. "Chinese Exclusion Act." An act to execute certain tready stipulation relationg to the Chinese 6 May 1882,
Enrolled Acts and Resolutions of Congress 1789-1996; ed.: 2. Document.
12 Farlex, Inc. The free dictionary by Farlex. Ed. Gerald N. Hill and Kathleen T. Hill. 1981. Farlex, Inc. Dictionary.
2005. <http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Illegal+immigration>.
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II. Historical Background of the Illegal Immigration
As briefly mentioned above, historical aspects of illegal immigrants have changed
through timeline as well as their contribution to our society. As a country of immigrants, it
is hard to distinguish between immigrants and non-immigrants since our own “The
Founding Fathers” were not properly equipped with documentation that meets the
standard of our government today. However, after the U.S. government have formed, it was
necessary to seek the nation’s best interest which includes allocating scarce resources to
people who resided within the nation. In the process of classifying subjects to the U.S.
government’s duty, the notion of ‘Citizenship to the United States’ was first regulated in
Alien Naturalization Act14 in 1790, later bona fide by 14th Amendment proposed by 39th
congress15.
The U.S. government’s attempt to control immigrant population began with
President John Adams, who enacted four acts16 regarding alien population and the U.S.
government was invested with the power to punish/deport Aliens17.
Starting with Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, the immigration exclusion era began.
The Civil Rights Act of 1866, granted U.S. citizenship to all persons born in the United States
"not subject to any foreign power." On Mar. 28, 1898, Citizenship was extended to those of
people who were foreign-born decedents18. Problem using back door to illegal entrance to
U.S. soil became an issue starting 192019. In 1924, the Immigration Act was enacted as well
as formation of the first U.S. border patrol20. The issues with illegal immigrants have stayed
within the society ever since.
National Research Council. The New Americans: Economic, Demographic, and Fiscal Effects of Immigration.
Ed. P. James Smith and Barry Edmonston. Vol. 1. Washington D.C.: National Academies Press, 1997. 1 vols.
Books.
14 United States. "1790 Naturalization Act." The public statutes at large of the United States of America / by
authority of Congress 1845-1867, 8 v. ; 25-30 cm ed.: 755. Serial. 1789 to 1845.
<http://purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/LPS52578>.
15 Amendment XIV, Section 1, Clause 1: All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the
jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.
16 An Act to Establish an Uniform Rule of Naturalization, An Act Concerning Aliens, An Act Respecting Alien
Enemies, and An Act for the Punishment of Certain Crimes against the United States
17 See the reference page for the resource regarding all four Acts above mentioned.
18 UNITED STATES V. WONG KIM ARK, 169 U. S. 649 (1898)
19 "The Chinese exclusion laws greatly hindered Chinese immigration into the United States, but... they did not
serve as the total barriers that exclusionists hoped they would. An estimated 17,300 Chinese immigrants
entered the United States through the back doors of Canada and Mexico from 1882 to 1920. U.S. Bureau of
Immigration reports and newspaper accounts indicate that they entered the country through Seattle,
Washington; Buffalo, New York; San Diego, California; San Antonio and El Paso, Texas; and numerous other
points along the northern and southern borders of the United States."- Erika Lee, PhD at America's Gates,
2003.-Lee, Erika. At America's Gates. reasearch paper. University of North Carolina. Chapel Hill: The
University of North Carolina Press, 2003. Book report.
<http://unc.codemantra.us/UI_TRANSACTIONS/Marketing/Marketing.aspx?ID=WP9780807827758&ISBN=
9780807827758&sts=b>.
20 —. U.S. Border patrol: U.S. custom and border protection. 1 May 2010. webpage. 5 June 2009.
<http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/border_security/border_patrol/border_patrol_ohs/history.xml>.
13
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Figure 1.
(Source: self-creation)
Illegal immigrant population has shown steady growth in time. After exclusion
restrictions, people entered U.S. through various route. Although the census does not keep
a separate track on illegal immigrant population, using similar method21 that is used today
can be applied. However, the data itself should entirely be separated from today’s issue due
to IRCA in 198622. The illegal immigrant population prior to 1980 is not considered in
todays’ census. The following data23 is provided only as a point of consideration but the
issues regarding illegal immigration – jobs and wages are not entirely separated from those
of todays.
As we can see, populations with no papers are decreasing gradually until 1950 after
government’s restriction over immigrating population was reinforced. However,
interesting point is, total population of immigrant seems to be increased gradually even
throughout the Great Recession.
Parcel, Jefferey. "Estimating the number of undocumented aliens." Brief. Bureau of Cencus, 1986. Scan.
Under Section 249 of the INA, the registry provision, qualified persons who have resided continuously in
the United States since prior to January 1, 1972 may apply for LPR status. Additionally, persons who had
resided continuously in the United States since prior to January 1, 1982 as unauthorized residents were
eligible to adjust for LPR status under the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) of 1986.
23 Barabba, Vincent P. Historical statistics of the united states;. Analytic report. U.S. Department of Commerce.
Washington D.C: Bureau of the Census, 1975. Document.
21
22
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III. Demographic background of illegal immigrants.
Total population of illegal immigrants
According to DHS office of
immigration statistics, by 2010,
number of illegal immigrants
amount to 10,790,00024. To
understand the issue over illegal
immigration, it is important to
know their demographic
background. With DHS data,
countries of birth of illegal
immigrants are divided into 11
categories. It is noticeable that
Mexican population is the biggest
out of all other categories. All
other shares of South American
countries combined seems the
major groups of illegal immigrants
in U.S these days.
Figure 2.
(Source: DHS Statistics)
Figure 3.
According to the DHS
office of immigration statistics,
method of deduction was used
to estimate the respective
amount25. The detailed
number of population
changing over 10 year period
is listed in Figure 3. Total
number of increased
population is 2,330,000,
increased by 27.5%.
Immigrants from East Asian
Countries are rather decreased
while others increased.
(Source: DHS Statistics)
(In ten Thousands)
24Hoefer,
Michael, et al. Estimates of the Unauthorized Immigrant Population Residing in the United States:
January 2010. Annual Report. U.S. Government. Washington D.C: Office of Immigration Statistics, 2011.
Document.
25 Total foreign-born population living in U.S. – Total foreign-born population with legal status living in U.S.
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Occupational fields shared by unauthorized workers
Figure 4 is a list of
occupational fields shared by the
illegal immigrant labor force and
the total amount of labor force
population. The total ratio of
population of illegal immigrant
who are engaged in labor market
is 69.16%. It can be interpreted
into wage terms such as; about
30% of illegal immigrant
populations are:
1) Engaged in labor market with
unreported income.
2) Not considered to be a working
age.26
3) Stay-at-home individuals.
4) Students and others.
(Comparison regarding portion in
population and labor market will be
noted in Chapter 3.)
In general, ages between 16 and 65 is considered since minors are not legally eligible and populations over
age of 65 are likely to be retired. In this particular case, it seems appropriate to consider wider range of ages
based on their preexisting illegitimate status to job market as illegal immigrants.
26
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Demographical area of illegal resident
The fact that where they inhibit is a relevant to the topic including crime rates, etc. It
seems that illegal residents are highly populated in certain area more than others. In figure
5, general illegal resident area can be seen on a map27.
Interesting point is, between the most populated area and its subsequent area has a
huge gap in population. Also, out of 4 states that are high in population, 3 states are near to
southern border than other borders of United States. Another point is that New York States
is the only state that is mostly populated but not facing towards southern border line.
California, New York, Miami and Texas are preferred area of residency.
27
Based on 2008 population census
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Chapter Three
Issues regarding illegal immigrants and other collaterals
I. Issues regarding illegal immigrants in United States and Analysis
Change in wages and job distribution with corresponding Impacts
a. Issue
To clarify disambiguation, issues regarding wage can be narrowed down to one
category. Regarding the job fields that are occupied with illegal immigrants, people within
the same labor market for similar skill are worried that they might also have to lower their
wage due to competition with illegal immigrants.
Theoretical idea of the concern is, if the demand remains constant, depend on the
supply, the curve will be shifted resulting lowering equilibrium point as a whole. Basic idea
is, by having illegal immigrants, supply of labor force will be
increase. Then, the supply curve shifts to right and create
new equilibrium point of (Q2, P2) instead of (Q1, P1). P is
for the price, and in this case, it is their wage. However, Q is
increased in amount which stands for number of jobs in
labor market.
In a same sense, by lowering the price, also the curve
itself will be shifted and create the same consequence. It
seems like a compelling idea but for this curve to be applied
in the market system; all other factors must remain the
same.
For instance, a person named A was looking into construction business. He wanted
to open his own business but the labor cost seemed too high and was waiting for his chance
to open his own business. When he found eligible illegal labor force, and decided to open
his business, he will create more demand. In result, demand curve will also shifted and
equalize the effect.
For their theory to work perfectly,
1)
2)
The number of jobs available must remain the same. Therefore, if one
person gets hired, the other must lose the opportunity.
Amount of jobs created within the same field must be equal to the amount
of jobs taken.
If there were only limited jobs and business available and there must not be a substitute for
their choice. In other words, a dishwasher must remain as dishwasher and if the
opportunity is lost, he will not have any other choice but to work with cheaper wage or
remain unemployed. Therefore, range of supply must be limited to within certain
boundary.
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To analyze concern, first average wage of each job must be computed. Occupations
that hire illegal immigrants are listed in figure 4, in Chapter 2.
Here are average wage of each occupation shared by illegal immigrant labor forces.
As we can see, the average wage of given fields is below average wage of Americans not
limited to lists above. The wage listed above is to those of labor forces who are legally
eligible for the job. Since illegal labor forces are unregistered workers, average of their
wage is incomputable.
Looking at each occupation’s field, none of the job is in high wage occupational
section is listed. According to Bureau of Labor Statistics, listed jobs within United States are
about 800. Despite all other choices, only about 30 job choices are listed.
First, if we only look at the share of listed labor market, illegal immigrants are taking
more than a half of the percentage. Are we really losing jobs to illegal immigrants? To
answer that question, we have to look into the type of jobs they are working and how many
Americans are willing to compete with them. The total number of labor force within that
job market is 13,352. Since the number is including illegal immigrants, total number of
Americans will be 6,097 and all numbers are in thousand.
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The entire civilian labor forces that are employed are 148,615 including illegal
immigrants. The percentage of labor force within the job market is little less than 9%. Now,
in a sense of competition, number of illegal immigrants must be overruled.
141,360 is the number of American labor force. Now, about 4.3% of the labor
market is working within the field. Considering the supply and demand curve again, we
should see how the theoretical job market will change if we eliminate cheaper labor.
Since the theory was that demand curve will not shift, the supply will stay at (Q1, P1). The
factor remained same, we should look at Q. Number of jobs are decreased. In other words,
people who hired them before are not hiring anymore. Why? Under the assumption, if one
is lost, the other must replace its place. How can there be a replacement when the half of
the workers is gone? Are Americans working twice much?
These are factors we should also consider. What happened to businesses that does
not have enough employees? In this case, the competition over scarce resource seems to
happening in-between business owners and potential employees. Whose point are we
considering more important? Do business owners pay less tax on operating cost when
undocumented employee is hired? If yes, whose net loss is bigger?
Also, where will American workers be hired if the business runs out? It is true that
they have broader opportunity in population concentrated area. Is there an ultimate
winner to this problem? I will have further explanation in the following section.
b. Analysis
Like I mentioned at the beginning of the thesis, there are always two sides on every
issue. In this case, there are people who think illegal immigrants are helping the economy
while other argues that they cause more problems than they benefit the economy.
First of all, concerning whether illegal immigrants are eliminating job opportunities
for Americans, we should focus on the fact that the market is not a zero sum game. Other
people’s gain is not the loss on my behalf.
Let’s go back to the part that I discussed how many factors there are to be considered to
evaluate the labor market. The reason is that consumers to sellers are also sellers to
consumers, meaning market circulates.
For example, let’s say, in a hypothetical situation, an illegal immigrant took a job
from an American. By taking a job in America he will be forced to spend money on
necessities such as housing, food etc. In that sense, he is consuming goods from an
American market. Therefore, he is contributing to our economy at the same time he is
benefiting from it. Though in reality, it is far more complex than the situation above since
we have to consider every market he/she is engaged in including government’s net cost.
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Second, regarding people’s concern over wage seems somewhat irrelevant since
most of the job does not require high standard employees, it is inevitable that it will always
be lower than other jobs that requires higher standard. There is a lowest margin due to
government policy. In other words, wage cannot go beyond minimum wage.
Some jobs on the list are already near minimum wage and the choice is up to the
person who takes the job. In the end, in a free market system, we all get a chance to decide.
Government spending & public cost on illegal immigrants
a. Issue
Are illegal immigrants free riders in the society? To answer the question, we will
need to look into tax problems since public costs are mostly done by our tax.
According to Federation for American immigration reform28, costs of illegal
immigrants are
Figure 7.
$28,645,400,000.
However, the problems
with their numbers are
somewhat arbitrary. On
their report, they argue
that costs of education of
child with an illegal
Source: FAIR, numbers in hundred thousands
immigrant parent or both
should not be considered as government aid for U.S. citizens although they are U.S. citizens.
Also, they have included expenditure on Hispanic low-income families assuming they are
illegal immigrants. Their argument for it is that language can be deceiving. (Percentage is
not based on total amount. Therefore, it should be disregarded here)
Also, they argue income tax earning, IRS29’s report on Average $6.25 billion dollar is
wrong as well as a 2004 study by the CIS put the estimated tax payments collected by the
federal government from illegal aliens at about $15.9 billion in 200230 since their
assumption is that illegal immigrants are using fake SSN and filling income tax return but
they do not have data.
As oppose to FAIR, Economic Report of the President says earning from their
Medicare taxes, SSA taxes as well as their income taxes. However, they do not gain any
benefit in return since it requires identification matching. Which viewpoint is more
accurate?
Martin, Jack and Eric A. Ruark. The fiscal burend of illegal immigration on United States Taxpayers.
Informational. Federation For America Immigration Reform. Washington DC: FAIR, 2010. PDF.
29 Statement of the honorable Mark w. Everson, commissioner, internal revenue service, testimony before the
house committee on ways and means, July 26, 2006.
30 camarota, steven a., “the high cost of cheap labor: illegal immigration and the federal budget,” op. cit.
28
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b. Analysis
Problem with the issue deciding whether illegal immigrants are net cost to our
society does not seem very ambiguous on where to draw the line. However, if we draw
strict line between illegal immigrants and U.S. citizens as their official status, the claim on
the expenditure reduces great amount. Also, they cost estimate was all family based, public
assistance decreases as well.
For the general Expenditures, there was no explanation that is logical to explain how
they came up with that number. Their explanation was based on government spending on
general expenditure was 44.8%; they felt that it was necessary to put large number that
takes 60 percent of their estimated cost.
Since there is no logical explanation on their claim, it seems that the amount should
be disregarded due to its irrelevancy. Also, on cost regarding law enforcement, they own
report states that Byrne grants does not have a relationship with illegal immigrants but
they assume that illegal immigrants use them as well. Therefore, it was included in their
estimation.
In result, more than a half of their estimation is not based on known facts and even
with the rest amounts, costs for homeless people, low income family, and Hispanic family
are not equivalent to cost for illegal immigrants.
These seem to be a good example of a logical fallacy. It is true that 60 percent of
illegal immigrants are Hispanic decedents. Also, we can learn that illegal immigrants’ job
list shows us that their average income might be lower than that of average Americans’.
Nonetheless, logic does not flow backwards. For instance, it is not true when you say; all
superman actors have dark hair and strong physical appearance. Therefore; all brunette
guys with masculinity body shape are superman actors.
It is inevitable that part of our government spending will be used for illegal
immigrants since they are a part of our society but for the “free-rider” argument, my
position is skeptical about their stand.
Research result from FAIR is based on lots of assumption. On the contrary,
government estimated numbers do not projects any thoughts or assumption but just figure
amount of number as a data. However, there was no estimated cost report that is spent on
public sector that went to illegal immigrant population only.
It is hard to figure out whether they are free-riders or it is other way around. Failing
to a logical output does not necessarily prove their argument wrong. Despite their fallacy to
prove such claim, the claim itself might stand still. Collecting all details is impossible due to
lack of information. Therefore, the question should remain unanswered until proven fact
comes into our hands.
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Crime rates caused by illegal immigrants
a. Issue
The following picture must seem familiar since it is almost identical to the one that
is in Chapter 2. Comparing the area preference, choice of illegal immigrants’ does not seem
too different from that of Americans’. It seems that proving high crime rate on areas with
high population of illegal immigrants’ residency will only prove Americans are also capable
of committing crimes.
Here is some information regarding crime stats regarding illegal immigrants:
1) the undocumented immigrant population doubled to about 12 million from 1994 to
2005, the violent crime rate in the United States declined by 34.2% and the property
crime rate fell by 26.4%31 Although data released in September 2007 by the Federal
Bureau of Investigation (FBI) indicates that the violent crime rate has increased for two
consecutive years since 200432
2) Anti-immigrant activists have pointed to estimates by the U.S. Government
Accountability Office (GAO) that one quarter of all federal prisoners in the United States
is “criminal aliens.”33
31 U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics—Data Online, “Reported Crime in United States—Total,
1960-2005”{http://bjsdata.ojp.usdoj.gov/dataonline/Search/Crime/State/statebystaterun.cfm?stateid=52}.
32 Federal Bureau of Investigation, Crime in the United States, 2006, September 2007.
U.S. Government Accountability Office, Information on Criminal Aliens Incarcerated in Federal and State
Prisons and Local Jails (GAO-05-337R), April 7, 2005, p. 2.
33
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What does all these data suggests?
b. Analysis
It is very hard to build co-relationship between two data in 1). It is committing a
logical fallacy by enumerating two irrelevant data as if they are interacting together.
However, without putting them together as if they mean something, each data separated
from one another does not have any ground to be linked.
For 2), it is hard to tell whether the information is only limited to illegal immigrants.
Unlike common belief, people who have rightful residency within the states are entirely
different from those of people who are here without any documentation.
There are other data suggest two entirely different outcomes. Nonetheless, as I
looked closely into it without being misled by their intentions, there was not much of data
that concludes neither ‘illegal immigrants’ population is less likely to commit crimes” nor
‘illegal immigrants are heavily accountable for U.S. crime rates.’
Parties argue their points should be weigh more importantly than the other.
Although, their data suggests that it is insufficient amount of research materials to build
relationship in-between. To be exact, 1) we would have to uncover data that are
unreported as well. In addition to 2) clarify two groups of legal and illegal immigrants
distinctively.
Although there is not sufficient amount of data to build correlation, it is clear that
crime rates are not moving along the illegal immigrant population rate. In result, knowing
that there is not an ultimate relationship between to rates is the conclusion that we can get
from data above. The least interpretation we can make from data above is that illegal
immigrants’ population is separate from those of crime rates within U.S.
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Chapter Four:
Conclusions
I. Conclusions
The purpose of this thesis has been to explore some of the controversy over
amnesty towards illegal immigrants in regards to job loss and gain. The preceding chapters
have presented data over some controversies and the effects in our society. As for the
analysis, these different factors that have been researched over the American society have
different results depend on the point of view. Then I examined research about the history
of illegal immigration regulations, the socio-political economic situation, and issues raised
by illegal immigrants and collaterals. Examining this specific relationship in terms of
population size, job count, job distribution, and wages has shown us the different parties
that illegal immigrant employment harms and benefits. The results of this research yielded
information that could help provide amnesty towards illegal immigrants and also it might
be a concern to specific group of people within our country.
In result, as the title suggests, every issue have two sides of a coin and it is up to us
whether we will embrace the consequence and chose to co-exist with them with some
benefits we gain or to shun them down and have separate ways of our own. Either case, it is
suggesting that America is offering a lot of dreams that other countries do not.
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II. Appendix & Bibliography
Appendix a.
+
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