Common Immigrant Myths and Facts
JOBS
MYTH: Every job filled by an immigrant – especially an illegal immigrant – is a job that could be filled by an unemployed American.
FACT: Immigrants typically do not compete for jobs with native-born workers and immigrants create jobs as entrepreneurs, consumers, and taxpayers.
WAGES
MYTH: Immigrants drive down the wages of American workers.
FACT: Immigrants give a slight boost to the wages of most Americans by increasing their productivity and stimulating investment.
POPULATION
MYTH: Immigrants will “over-populate” the United States.
FACT: Immigrants will replenish the U.S. labor force as the Baby Boomers retire.
TAXES
MYTH: Undocumented immigrants do not pay taxes.
FACT: Undocumented immigrants pay billions of dollars in taxes each year, often for benefits they will never receive.
WELFARE
MYTH: Immigrants come to the United States for welfare benefits.
FACT: Undocumented immigrants are not eligible for federal public benefit programs, and legal immigrants face stringent eligibility restrictions.
INTEGRATION
MYTH: Today’s immigrants are not assimilating into U.S. society.
FACT: Today’s immigrants are buying homes and becoming U.S. citizens.
CRIME
MYTH: Immigrants are more likely to commit crimes than U.S. natives.
FACT: Immigration does not cause crime rates to rise and immigrants have lower incarceration rates than native-born Americans.
Excerpt from the Immigration Facts and Myths
Labor, Immigration and Employee Benefits Division, U.S. Chamber of Commerce
For the full link, see the Resources section
A History of Immigration Laws and Policy
1798 — Alien and Sedition Acts- the President could deport anyone considered a danger to the peace and security of the country
1850s — with the ending of the slave trade, the United Stated imported immigrants for specific jobs
1860-1920 — 28.5 million immigrants entered the United States. The “Know Nothings” created hostility towards immigrants and Roman Catholics
1882 — Chinese Exclusion Act. Many states would not permit the Chinese to own land. Laws also passed to initiate excludables—persons who could be prevented from immigrating to the United States, such as “idiots, lunatics, convicts and persons likely to become public charges.” By 1907, anarchists were added to the list. In 1888 also was initiated the policy of trying to regulate the labor flows and to stop labor organizing by passing a law that permitted deportation of “alien” contract workers after one year.
Early 20th Century — the majority of immigrants were arriving from Eastern and Southern Europe. Restrictions were imposed because it was believed that these “new” immigrants would not assimilate as those who had immigrated from northern and western Europe
1917 — Literacy Test. Established the list of exludable aliens, most Asians, except for Japanese who were imported to work the fields of Northern California while the fields of Southern California were worked by Mexican labor. With the economic crisis that followed WWI, there were many deportations of Mexican workers.
1921 — Quota Act was an attempt to preserve the northern/western European “character” of the United States—Great Britain with only 2% of the world’s population received 43% of the quota in order to exclude Eastern/Southern Europeans as innately inferiors
1924 — National origins-based immigration, total exclusion of Asians and Pacific Islanders. Ended 100 years of open immigration. Border Patrol established in the Southern border to stop Chinese immigrants. First Border Patrol agents were former Texas Rangers.
1901-1910 — 8.8 million immigrants admitted.
1911-1920 — 5.7 million immigrants admitted. This is the period of enormous movements of refugees into the border region, California, Midwest as a result of the Mexican Revolution, 1910-1921. This was also the period of great development of capitalist interests in the West with were labor intensive
1918 — Law passed to prohibit noncitizens from becoming members or affiliate themselves with organizations that sought to overthrow the government. 248 “radicals” deported. The Palmer raids arrested over 5,000 activists from their homes, work, schools. Was an attempt to stop labor organizing.
1931-1940—During the Great Depression, millions of Mexicans were deported.
1940 — Alien Registration Act. All “aliens” had to register and be fingerprinted and “subversives” added to the exludable list. Now all immigration/border policy turned over to Justice from Labor Department. During WWII Japanese Americans will be removed to internment camps.
1942-1964 — Bracero Program imports 3 million Mexican workders who will face highly exploited conditions and serve to prevent unionization in the fields. During high harvest workers imported and during economic crisis they are deported.
1950 — Internal Security Act called for deportation of “politically dangerous” persons that threatened national security.
1952 — McCarren-Walter Act or Immigration and Nationality Act which organized all immigration laws in order to make it easier to deport and to exclude. Both these 1950 acts responded to McCarthism. They were the Patriot Acts of their day. Operation Wetback, 1953054, over a million Mexican workers were deported, as well as labor/community organizers.
1965 — Abolished National origins quotas and established numerical quotas, ending Asian exlusions, favored skilled workers, included asylum petitioning, however, favored those leaving socialist countries and excluded those petitioners from rightest regimes. Also added “sexual deviancy” to exludable list.
1976 — Immigration and Nationality Act equalizes quotas, harming Mexicans in trying to unify heir families or to allow minor U.S. citizen children from immigrating parents, until age 21.
1986 — Immigration Control and Reform Act (IRCA) went through many phases which were fought for by extensive grassroots organizations, including El Concilio Manzo, in Tucson. Implemented employer sanctions to prevent “illegal” workers and legalized 3 million undocumented workers. Continued the increase in border enforcement that had been initiated during the Nixon Administration to fight the “war on drugs.”
1980-1990s — Extensive grassroots mobilization around the wars in Central America and the support of Reagan to those repressive regimes, deporting by the thousands refugees to their countries contrary to international laws. The Sanctuary Movement is born in Tucson, as well as legal organizing in the detention camps to stop deportations by groups all over the border, including El Concilio Manzo in Tucson. In Florida the same issue faced Haitian refugees.
1996 — Under Clinton one of the most repressive immigration law was passed limiting the rights of permanent resident aliens to benefits and services, eliminated nearly all remedies for legalizing status, and extremely repressive anti-terrorist measures directed at immigrants.
Post 9/11, the Bush administration has passed the Patriot Act and moved all immigration and border policy to Homeland Security to its Border and Transportation Security Division, includes INS, Customs, Secret Service, Coast Guard and FEMA—22 agencies with a total of 170,000 employees and a $37 billion budget. The Patriot Act gave the federal government, among other things, broad powers to indefinitely detain suspected terrorists. At least 1,200 South Asian and Middle Eastern men were swept up in government dragnets, detained without charge, and denied due-process rights. Few, if any, of these detainees were charged with involvement in terrorist activities
