Immigration Lies

As the Minutemen fight each other for the right to carry that proud label, somebody might want to tell them that all their premises are wrong.

Four decades' worth of Census data show that the presence of immigrants have boosted pay for native-born Californians, including for native-born high school dropouts, who would seemingly be the ones forced onto the streets by the scourge of the brown wave.

At the same time, the Immigration Policy Center released a report (h/t Courage Campaign) showing that immigrants had violent crime rates five times lower than that of their native-born counterparts. This includes men of Mexican descent, who are incarcerated at five times less of a rate than native-born Mexican men. This is a frequent lie trotted out by bigots who blame the state's prison crisis on all the brown hordes who are locked up in the jails. It's not true.

It was always pretty clear that immigrants were a convenient scapegoat for a segment of the population made insecure by the economy, or blaming their own failings on "the culture." Immigrants who work hard and play by the rules, namely most of them, contribute to the society far more than they "steal" in goods and services. We need to find a way to welcome anyone who is willing to become part of the project of America. Let them pay their fines and get in line to become citizens. And punish employers who continue to exploit them. But let's not attribute all the ills of the nation to people who are simply trying to feed their families; instead, let's give them the opportunity to do so.