Immigration is not a bad thing. In fact, the United States is a nation that is made up of immigrants. However, the truth is that rampant, unchecked illegal immigration is a really, really horrible thing and it is permanently destroying many areas of the southwest United States. The U.S. government has refused to control the U.S. border with Mexico for decades, and this has allowed millions of criminals, drug dealers and gang members to cross freely into the United States. Not only that, but our refusal to secure the border has allowed thousands (if not millions) of people that have very serious diseases into the country. After illegal immigrants arrive they either try to make a living legally (by directly competing with blue collar American workers and driving their wages down) or illegally by selling drugs or being involved in other kinds of criminal activity. The economic burden that these tens of millions of illegal immigrants has put on our system is almost incalculable.
The sad thing is that virtually all of this illegal immigration can be prevented. The U.S. military has completely sealed the border between North Korea and South Korea for the past five decades, and yet the U.S. government completely refuses to seal our border with Mexico which is actually a much bigger threat to our national security.
In the United States today, if you want to get on an airplane you must subject yourself to some of the most invasive security measures imaginable, and yet every year our government knowingly allows millions of people to move into the United States by simply hopping over the border and then provides them with all kinds of free benefits once they get here.
What is most infuriating of all to many Americans is that these illegal aliens are taking jobs away from U.S. citizens. According to a review of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and Census Bureau data, legal and illegal immigrants gained over a million additional jobs between 2008 and 2010 even as millions of American citizens were losing their jobs during that same time period.
Once again, immigration is not a bad thing. But allowing rampant, uncontrolled illegal immigration is absolute insanity.
The following are 19 facts about illegal immigration that very few people are talking about….
#1 Nobody knows for sure how many illegal aliens are in the United States today, but the highest estimates put the number at well over 30 million.
#2 Today, far more immigrants move into the United States illegally than come in through the legal process.
#3 The vast majority of illegal aliens would never even dream of paying income taxes, but Mexicans living in America send billions upon billions of dollars out of the United States and back to Mexico every single year.
#4 Although illegal aliens pay next to nothing in taxes, they have no problem receiving tens of billions of dollars worth of free education benefits, free health care benefits, free housing assistance and free food stamp benefits.
#5 It is estimated that U.S. taxpayers spend $12,000,000,000 a year on primary and secondary school education for the children of illegal immigrants.
#6 The hordes of illegal aliens taking advantage of “free” medical care at hospital emergency rooms has caused dozens of hospitals across the state of California to completely shut down. As a result, the state of California now ranks dead last out of all 50 states in the number of emergency rooms per million people.
#7 It was estimated that there were approximately 7.7 million illegal aliens employed by U.S. employers during 2008.
#8 Just across the U.S. border, the city of Juarez, Mexico is considered to be one of the most dangerous cities on the entire planet because of the brutal drug war being waged there.
#9 U.S. authorities say that there are now over 1 million members of criminal gangs operating inside the United States. According to federal statistics, these 1 million gang members are responsible for up to 80% of the violent crimes committed in the U.S. each year. Latino gangs made up primarily of illegal aliens are responsible for much of this violence.
#10 According to the Center for Immigration Studies, some of the most notorious gangs are made up almost entirely of illegal immigrants….
“Gang investigators in Virginia estimate that 90% of the members of MS-13, the most notorious immigrant gang, are illegal immigrants.”
#11 The Mexican government says that as many as 28,000 people have been slaughtered by the drug cartels since 2007. A very significant percentage of those deaths have happened in areas right along the U.S. border.
#12 Federal border officials say that Mexican drug cartels have not only set up shop on U.S. soil, but they are actually maintaining lookout bases in strategic locations in the hills of southern Arizona.
#13 The drug war being waged on both sides of the border is so violent that it is almost unimaginable. For example, one very prominent Mexican assassin known as “the soupmaker” has confessed that he made approximately 300 bodies disappear by dissolving them in acid baths.
#14 Arizona police are being openly told that if they try to interfere with the drug traffic in their area that they will be “taken out” by drug cartel snipers.
#15 Each year, it costs the states billions of dollars to incarcerate illegal alien criminals that should have never been allowed into the country in the first place. It is estimated that illegal aliens make up approximately 30 percent of the population in federal, state and local prisons and that the total cost of incarcerating them is more than $1.6 billion annually.
#16 During one recent 23 year period, the state of California built 23 prisons but just one university.
#17 Border officials tell us that a growing number of radical Muslims are sneaking over the Mexican border into the United States.
#18 Approximately 75 tunnels along the U.S. border with Mexico have been discovered by law enforcement authorities in the last four years alone.
#19 One Rasmussen Reports telephone survey found that 60% of American voters nationwide favor an anti-immigration law just like the one that Arizona recently passed, while just 31% of Americans are opposed to such a law.
In a recent article I detailed the horrific economic decline that the state of California is experiencing right now, and quite a few readers left comments linking that decline with the massive influx of illegal immigrants into the state. The following is a sampling of those comments….
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Mondobeyondo:
Many of the problems in California have to do with… wait for it…
Are you ready?
Illegal immigration!!! (GASP!)
The same as in other southern border states – Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.
Fix that problem, and you’re halfway there.
Rob:
I have lived here off and on for 42 years. Hellhole is not strong enough a word for it. One cannot go anywhere without seeing Graffitti from these gangs. Illegal Aliens are literally on every corner and every home depot. LA County alone spent 600 million in aid to illegal aliens not including education being factored in and the state spent 110 billion last year on just programs, welfare, aid to illegal entitlement programs, no ***** wonder why we are broke, the liberal agenda out here is astonishing, these liberals literally couldnt see the forest through the trees. I am so sick of seeing Nortenos, Surenos, LaFamilia, and other hispanic gangs crowding our prisons, illegals underage having their anchor babies, illegals crowding the ER’s, crowding the schools. No wonder why the teachers are pissed off. I agree, this state sucks, and we will be moving very soon.
Franky:
Anyway, a few times I tried to work in restaurants and got pushed out by the illegal Latinos. Instead of just being appreciative that they have the opportunity to live in (and make tax-free money from) America, they come onto the scene and think they own the place.
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Once again, immigration is not an evil thing. It can be a very good thing in fact. But current U.S. immigration policy is beyond insane. It is severely damaging our economy, it is a law enforcement nightmare and it is a very, very serious threat to our national security.
It is not too much to ask those that wish to move to this country to come in through the front door. But the politicians in Washington D.C. seem absolutely determined to leave the back door open. It would be difficult to understate how absolutely foolish that is.