We miss the migrants

By the end of the year we will see reports that immigration from Mexico is flat. By that, I mean that the number of Mexicans entering the United States without authorization will be equal to or less than the number leaving.

Every group will jump up to take credit, however the most likely causes are the availability of jobs and better education in Mexico (some factories are sending people door-to-door in search of workers) and the increased danger to migrants as they journey to northern Mexico. The kidnappings and murders of migrant workers is national news and discourages people from making the agonizing decision to leave home in search of better paying jobs.

By the end of the year we will see reports that blame the lack of migrant workers for the increase in food costs. Farmers are already having a wonderful year as produce prices rise. However, many farmers may need to increase wages in the hope of attracting farm workers. The challenge to farmers will be to compete with world-wide competition.

Of course, no farmer needs to worry. The anti-immigration crowd will gladly pay an extra dollar or two for a pound of peaches or carrots. Given a choice between saving twenty dollars at the supermarket by purchasing only American grown fruits and vegetables and buying imported produce, the millions that demanded strict immigration control will gladly pay.
Hopefully, more citizens will be shopping, eating at restaurants and make up for the loss of 10 to 20 million people that were paying sales tax and keeping businesses profitable.

Now most of this is written with tongue in cheek, but this paragraph is seriously written. For years we have heard from politicians that taxes are high, emergency rooms are crowded, school classrooms are over-crowded and that the illegal immigrant is the cause. We’ve read and heard claims that there were as many as 20-million of these people sucking the lifeblood out of the American taxpayer. Now that every credible source estimates that there are now 6 to 9 million illegal immigrants remaining, when should we expect a tax reduction? If 20 million caused these huge taxes and problems and more than half are gone, where is my tax relief? Are the classrooms less crowded? Certainly, the hospitals require less government money now that half of their ‘problem’ is gone! So, give us the money.

Every law that is passed to reduce immigration because of the cost to the taxpayers should have a built in mechanism to trigger tax reductions as fewer immigrants are part of the community. It makes sense and I want my money back!