The United States is a nation of immigrants. And it is, at least sometimes, a nation of xenophobes. California is at the leading edge of both those histories. It is the nation’s most diverse state and home to more immigrants than any other state in the union. It also championed the Chinese Exclusion Act in the 1880s and demanded the removal and incarceration of its substantial Japanese-American population during World War II.
These are the contradictions of American history, and they are compounded — sometimes encouraged — by misunderstandings about what immigrants give to this nation. Rarely have those misunderstandings been more widespread than they are today. Lied to by their leaders, many Americans believe that migrants are disproportionately responsible for crime. They are not. Or that they drag down wages and prosperity. They do not.
The research featured in this issue of Blueprint helps dispel those and other assumptions that are distorting the national debate. To name a few wrong contentions:
- Immigration law enforces legal status, not racial identity. That’s inaccurate, as the creators of the Mapping Deportations Project graphically illustrate. American immigration law has targeted Irish, Italians and other southern Europeans and Chinese at different points in history. Since 1895, 96% of those deported from this country came here from non-White-majority countries.
- Undocumented migrants don’t pay taxes. False. They pay sales taxes, of course, and property taxes, either directly or through their rents. Moreover, because they contribute to Social Security and Medicare but are barred from receiving benefits, they represent a vast net contributor to those programs, relieving pressure on the federal budget. A recent study by the libertarian Cato Institute concluded that over a 30-year span, illegal immigrants reduced the U.S. deficit by $1.7 trillion.
- Immigrants take away American jobs. Nope. They dramatically add to the overall economy, creating jobs. During the three decades studied by Cato, migrants contributed in excess of $14.5 trillion more to the economy than they imposed in terms of costs.
- California suffers from its very large population of immigrants, especially undocumented immigrants. To the contrary, the state’s economic growth depends on those workers, whether in Silicon Valley, downtown Los Angeles or the fields of the Central Valley. Undocumented immigrants in California alone pay more than $23 billion annually in federal, state and local taxes.
- Immigrants come to this country to take advantage of its healthcare. In fact, many undocumented workers avoid the healthcare system for fear of apprehension, adding to their health difficulties. That includes pregnant mothers. May Sudhinaraset, vice chair of the Department of Community Health Sciences at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, explained: “When you have criminalizing policies, it is really detrimental to birth outcomes.”
In this time of disinformation, it is distressing to see one lie after another sidetrack debates into the cul-de-sacs of false accusation and calm rebuttal. It may be naïve to think that presenting these facts — supported by research, driven by data, backed by intelligent analysis — would hold the field against the avalanche of lies that fall upon them.
Still, facts are stubborn, and those are facts.
