Native-born Americans have a peculiar amnesia when it comes to acknowledging the role of immigrants in the difficult work of taming and transforming this country.
Chinese built the transcontinental railroads; the Irish, Germans, Italians and Polish toiled in Northern factories that fueled the Industrial Revolution; Mexicans in the Southwest worked farms and factories during the World Wars. Many immigrants were what we would call “unauthorized” — before 1924 there was little inspection.
These immigrants developed our country, and they eventually remade the American mainstream. They are in our blood and in our genes.
Sadly, a recent Pew Research Center study of 7,569 registered voters found that regarding immigrants living in the country without authorization:
- 56% believed they are making the U.S. economy worse — 85% of Trump’s supporters; 28% of Harris’ supporters.
- 64% believed they are making crime worse — 92% of Trump’s supporters; 37% of Harris’ supporters.
- 47% believed they are making social and cultural values worse — 76% of Trump’s supporters; 20% of Harris’ supporters.
Apparently, a majority of voters believe that unauthorized immigrants today are ruining our economy and society.
Unauthorized immigrants don’t take American jobs or lower American wages. Most jobs they fill are those that native-born Americans don’t take. In restaurants, they are busboys and dishwashers instead of waiters. This is not to disparage such jobs; John Naisbitt in “Megatrends” noted that for every new high-tech job we create, we demand one new “high touch” job.
We need low-skilled workers as much as we need highly skilled workers. In addition, according to the American Immigration Council, immigrants, including the unauthorized, start businesses at about twice the rate of natives. Many refugees escaping persecution have become tech entrepreneurs — Sergey Brin, Google; Andrew Grove, Intel Corp.; and Jan Koum, WhatsApp.
Unauthorized immigrants are much less likely to be arrested, incarcerated or convicted. They are law-abiding because they are vulnerable; many have a business and a family in the U.S.
There is no evidence that immigrants weaken or undermine American political or
cultural institutions. The problem with beliefs such as those identified in the Pew Research Center report is that they lead to wrongheaded intentions and behaviors. One such intention is the mass deportation of 20 million noncitizen immigrants in the U.S.
How much would this cost us?
Set aside for the moment the immeasurable cost in human suffering and loss of international standing that such an action would bring.
In a New York Times op-ed, “The Miracle Cure of Mass Deportation,” Jamelle Bouie cites research showing that carrying out arrests, building detention camps, and processing and removing these immigrants — added to the loss of taxes and jobs in key sectors of the economy — would lead to a cost of 4.2% to 6.8% of annual gross domestic product, or $1.1 trillion to $1.7 trillion. This would “dwarf anything experienced by Americans since the Great Depression.
Moreover, it would be a “moral crime of world-historical proportions.”
Richard Jones is a professor emeritus in the Department of Political Science and Geography at The University of Texas at San Antonio.
A version of this op-ed appeared in the San Antonio Express-News.
