Undocumented Immigrants: Myths and Realities

| | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)
The Urban Institute published a well-sourced list of "six myths and realities" regarding undocumented immigrants.  It speaks for itself.  However, the emphasis is provided:

Myth #1: Undocumented immigrants come to the United States to get welfare.

Undocumented men come to the United States almost exclusively to work. In 2003, over 90 percent of undocumented men worked—a rate higher than that for U.S. citizens or legal immigrants [ ]. Undocumented men are younger, less likely to be in school, and less likely to be retired than other men [ ]. Moreover, undocumented immigrants are ineligible for welfare, food stamps, Medicaid, and most other public benefits [ ].


Myth #2: Undocumented immigrants all crossed the Mexican border.

Between 60 and 75 percent of the more than 10 million undocumented immigrants entered illegally and without inspection—mostly across the Mexican border. The other 25 to 40 percent entered legally and subsequently overstayed visas or otherwise violated the terms of their admission [ ].

Myth #3: Undocumented immigrants are all single men.

Over 40 percent of undocumented adults are women, and the majority (54 percent) of undocumented men live in married couples or other families [ ]. Fewer than half of undocumented men are single and unattached.

Myth #4: Most children of the undocumented are unauthorized.

In fact, two-thirds of all children with undocumented parents (about 3 million) are U.S.-born citizens who live in mixed-status families.

Myth #5: A large share of schoolchildren are undocumented.

Nationally in 2000, only 1.5 percent of elementary schoolchildren (enrolled in kindergarten through 5th grade) and 3 percent of secondary children (grades 6-12) were undocumented. Slightly higher shares—5 percent in elementary and 4 percent in secondary schools—had undocumented parents.

Myth #6: Undocumented immigrants do not pay taxes.

Undocumented immigrants pay the same real estate taxes—whether they own homes or taxes are passed through to rents—and the same sales and other consumption taxes as everyone else. The majority of state and local costs of schooling and other services are funded by these taxes. Additionally, the U.S. Social Security Administration has estimated that three quarters of undocumented immigrants pay payroll taxes, and that they contribute $6-7 billion in Social Security funds that they will be unable to claim  [ ].

Just a little food for thought . . .




0 TrackBacks

Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: Undocumented Immigrants: Myths and Realities.

TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.latinopundit.com/~latinopu/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/278

3 Comments

Someone said:

(editor: someone wrote this, it almost got deleted when I realized it wasn't Spam and managed to save it...the personal info of who wrote it got lost however)

Utter. F'ing. Bullshit. On all 6 counts. Rather than typing bullshit on your keyboard and trying to snow-job America over with all this crap, why not just look at one single word, "illegal," as in "illegal immigrants," and realize that the only solution is immediate deportation?

Lame how nobody wants to embrace such a simple, obvious, pro-active solution, both of the major parties are in the embrace of the Wetback Lobby.

I'd even choose Hillary Clinton over those turds we have for Republican candidates like John McCain and Mike Huckabee. Hillary has actually shown some get-tough and go and kick out the illegals tendencies and policies, while McCain and Huckabee continue to jump all over each other to decide who wants to give amnesty faster than the others.

Illegals are lawbreakers, and you are a moron and a total jerk for in any way, shape or form defending or speaking for them. They are illegal, period, and maybe if you learned to read beyond a D-student 3rd-grade level, you'd be able to figure that out easily without someone having to knock you over the head to see it.

LP said:

But it's all true; each and every word.

El Loco said:

In law school, they have a saying:

"When the facts are on your side, pound on the facts. When the law is on your side, pound on the law. When neither is on your side, pound on the table."

It seems that "Someone" couldn't argue his way out of a paperback without using ad hominems. Oh, and that's Latin, by the way. Look it up in a dictionary, if you know what that is (now that's an ad hominem. And without referencing anything other than his opinion.

What to make of it? Not much. It's four paragraphs of nothing.

Leave a comment

About this Entry

This page contains a single entry by El Loco published on January 11, 2008 3:50 PM.

Another Banned Book was the previous entry in this blog.

Brown Women Endorsing Barack is the next entry in this blog.

Find recent content on the main index or look in the archives to find all content.

Powered by Movable Type 4.01