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| wilsoncenter.org |
Many of you have been following the “gang of eight” and
the new immigration bill that is making its way through Congress right now. I
have been trying to read the details of the bill from both sides, just to make
sure I am getting as much of the information as possible. I find that I have to
do that these days in order to cut through the political bias that the media
pours on us.
Getting back to the topic, I want to provide a
little bit of my personal back story on this issue. As many of you know, I am
conservative. That said, my initial reaction shouldn’t be too much of a shock
to anyone. I was completely appalled by the idea of making all the illegal
immigrants legal, which was the main focus of the bill from the start.
Eventually, I took the time to really think about
what that would mean. The biggest argument for immigration reform is that the
illegal immigrants weren’t paying taxes, yet were draining from our budget
through social programs and the prison system. Don’t get excited at that last
remark. I didn’t come up with the idea.
So it finally dawned on me – the illegal immigrants
would become legal and have to pay taxes. Isn’t that a success story? Doesn’t
that solve the biggest problem? The only other major issue I can think of is
the sudden saturation in the market when it comes to low income jobs. I am no
economist by any means, but if more people are making more money and putting it
back into the economy, isn’t that a good thing?
If the illegal immigrants become legal and have the
ability to make more money for their skills, couldn’t that bring the trades
back? That is an issue that I have been passionate about for years.
What do you guys think? This is only my analysis of
the bill when it comes to the legalization process. As I find time, I will try
to pick through the other parts of the bill.
- BCS
