Drains, Gains and Mythology

As immigration reform winds its way through Congress, there has been a strong push-back from many in the Tea Party block of the GOP. Democrats and Republicans who support the new bill argue that on its face, the legislation has a litany of safeguards to exclude those undocumented aliens who have slipped through the cracks and get federal benefits anyway, particularly a subsection that specifically addresses excluding those who become public charges.  “But Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., another Republican senator who has emerged as one of the chief critics of the bill, says the law does not properly enforce that provision… Sessions told Fox News that the so-called ‘public charge’ law, as currently written, has been ‘totally ignored’ to date. And he argued that many immigrants will be eligible for benefits much sooner than proponents claim -- including the so-called ‘dreamers,’ young illegal immigrants brought to the U.S. their parents. 

“Sessions said 2-3 million illegal immigrants who claim that status will be able to have access to federal benefits in five years… And, he added, eventually ‘everyone who entered illegally will be able to accept any benefits this country offers.’ … After the 15-year waiting period, the number accessing federal benefits could be an additional 10 or 11 million…  Nevertheless, [Florida Republican Senator Marco] Rubio insists there will be checks at every stage of the process. ‘When you re-apply at the six-year mark, by the way you’re not eligible for any public benefits at that point, you have to prove you're not a public charge,’ he said. 

“A controversial report released [in early May] by the conservative Heritage Foundation estimated that, under the bill, the total cost of legalizing 11 million illegal immigrants could approach $6.3 trillion over the course of their lifetimes. The study factored in taxes those immigrants would pay, but also the services and other benefits that would be spent on them. .. It has come under heavy scrutiny from some conservative economists who say it ignored significant factors - like the possibility of some of these illegal immigrants moving up the income ladder after coming out of the shadows, while expanding the economy and boosting federal tax revenue. Sessions and other critics are unconvinced.”  FoxNews.com, May 8^th.

Rubio’s championing immigration reform has other Republicans saying his work is the death knell for his presidential aspirations. Iowa “Rep. Steve King is already predicting doom in 2016 for Sen. Marco Rubio in the influential Republican caucuses in Iowa, where he said the senator will likely lose based on his immigration reform bill.” Huffington Post, May 30^th. Fear and loathing are not pretty emotions.

For a nation built on immigrants who have risen through the economic ranks over the years, it is a strange argument that these immigrants will always remain at the bottom. Perhaps today, with a deteriorating school system, there may be reasons to fear the future, but if job creation is the mantra, when allowed to live and grow in the United States legally, recent immigrants have been a disproportionate source of new jobs in an era when unemployment remains a core issue.

There are also statistics that actually show how immigrants have contributed far more to federal social benefit programs than they have taken out. “[R]esearchers at Harvard Medical School, measured immigrants’ contributions to the part of Medicare that pays for hospital care, a trust fund that accounts for nearly half of the federal program’s revenue. It found that immigrants generated surpluses totaling $115 billion from 2002 to 2009. In comparison, the American-born population incurred a deficit of $28 billion over the same period.

“The findings shed light on what demographers have long known: Immigrants are crucial in balancing the age structure of American society, providing an infusion of young, working-age adults who support the country’s aging population and help cover the costs of Medicare and Social Security. And with the largest generation in the United States, the baby boomers, now starting to retire, the financial help from immigrants has never been more needed, experts said.

“Individual immigrant contributions were roughly the same as those of American citizens, the study found, but immigrants as a group received less than they paid in, largely because they were younger on average than the American-born population and fewer of them were old enough to be eligible for benefits. The median age of Hispanics, whose foreign-born contingent is by far the largest immigrant group, is 27, according to the Brookings Institution. The median age of non-Hispanic whites in the United States is 42.

“The [Harvard] study drew on two nationally representative federal surveys, from the Census Bureau and the Department of Health and Human Services. Researchers included the contributions of legal residents who were not citizens, a group that is eligible for Medicare if certain requirements are met; unauthorized immigrants; and citizens who were born abroad.” New York Times, May 29^th.

The reality is that a closed-off America is also an America that rejects the lifeblood of new ideas and new energy that built this nation in the first place. We seem to have lost confidence in ourselves and our ability to compete. There is too much emphasis on circling the wagons, seemingly protecting what we have (and seem to be losing anyway), and ignoring the underlying requirements of economic growth. It’s time to lose the fear and rebuild the notion of American hope and opportunity.

I’m Peter Dekom, and my father (a successful journalist), step-father (a military officer who became a career U.S. diplomat) and my mother (an analyst at the Department of State) were all born outside of the United States.