Immigration Myths

Many people get upset at undocumented immigrants because they supposedly mooch off of tax money that should rightfully go to the rest of us. The truth is, undocumented immigrants often own their own houses or rent their own apartments, and so they end up paying a lot in property taxes. Additionally, those who work under false identities, with false social security numbers, are paying a lot of money for unemployment benefits that they will never be able to collect. So in reality, they are subsidizing the system, not stealing from it. So why do we get so worked up about illegal immigrants? Often it is because we are afraid that they are stealing our jobs. However, in an economy like the one we've got right now, it is the most vulnerable who suffer, and right now, undocumented immigrants are the most vulnerable. They are the ones losing their jobs, and are getting cheated by employers who take advantage of their undocumented status. We are also ignoring the fact that we are the ones who put them out of jobs in the first place. We created thousands of unemployed Mexican farmers by flooding Mexican markets with cheap US corn. We subsidize our exported corn so much that there is no way Mexican farmers can compete. So, since there is no point in growing crops at home, they come across the border and help us harvest our crops here. Makes perfect sense, doesn't it? Yet we make it nearly impossible for them to come legally, and when they attempt to come illegally, we build big walls which force them to go through the often lethal desert in order to get around. The border between the US and Mexico has claimed thousands of lives. All because of greed and fear.