Updated 05:20 PM EDT, Thu, Mar 28, 2024

Immigration Reform 2014: Myths of Illegal Immigration and Recent Protests Against Housing Migrant Children

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There are many myths about illegal immigration, and belief in those myths has sparked reactions arose the country. From Murrietta Calif. to Boston, Mass., protesters have come out in droves to oppose illegal immigration and the children who are being housed in the United States after coming over the border with Mexico from Central America.

More than 50,000 children so far have made the journey.

"The July 1 protest started an explosive week for the city of Murrieta," reported the Desert Sun. Six people were arrested in the protest which tried to block a bus carried immigrant children to a shelter in the city.

A similar action was threatened in Oracle, Ariz.

One of the things that people opposing immigrants believe is that migrants come here to take advantage of the U.S. welfare system. In actuality, they come here often times to be reunited with family and to work.

"Immigrant labor-force participation is consistently higher than native-born, and immigrant workers make up a larger share of the U.S. labor force (12.4 percent) than they do the U.S. population (11.5 percent). Moreover, the ratio between immigrant use of public benefits and the amount of taxes they pay is consistently favorable to the U.S., unless the "study" was undertaken by an anti-immigrant group. In one estimate, immigrants earn about $240 billion a year, pay about $90 billion a year in taxes, and use about $5 billion in public benefits. In another cut of the data, immigrant tax payments total $20 to $30 billion more than the amount of government services they use," says the website rationalwiki.org.

Another thing that's often a source of frustration for many Americans who are impatient with immigrants is that recent arrivals to the U.S. don't want to learn English, or try and become Americans.

"Within 10 years of arrival, more than 75 percent of immigrants speak English well; moreover, demand for English classes at the adult level far exceeds supply," the website said, citing U.S. government data. "Greater than 33 percent of immigrants are naturalized citizens; given increased immigration in the 1990s, this figure will rise as more legal permanent residents become eligible for naturalization in the coming years. The number of immigrants naturalizing spiked sharply after two events: enactment of immigration and welfare reform laws in 1996, and the terrorist attacks in 2001."

Many anti-immigration proponents even think that people who cross the border are responsible for bringing diseases here, but government data doesn't support this.

"Every job filled by an immigrant - especially an illegal immigrant - is a job that could be filled by an unemployed American," the U.S. Chamber of Commerce posits.

Only that's not true, as the agency points out: "Immigrants typically do not compete for jobs with native-born workersand immigrants create jobs as entrepreneurs, consumers, and taxpayers."

Or there's the myth that illegal immigrants only want to send all of their wages back home.

The chamber mentions a university study that doesn't bear this out, "A study by the University of Nebraska, Omaha, estimated that spending by immigrants generated roughly 12,000 jobs for the state of Nebraska in 2006 -- including more than 8,000 jobs in the Omaha and Lincoln metropolitan areas. Many immigrants not only spend money in the U.S. economy, but establish new businesses and invent new technologies as well.

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