Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has enjoyed reading all the stuff abounding on Albert Gore’s internets about our immigration situation. If you haven’t you should check out Brian’s latest. In it he continues to put the smackdown on the Smallholder.

Of course, this time he also puts the smackdown on your Maximum Leader. It seems your Maximum Leader deserves a smackdown because he’s expressed support for the (possibly wrong) belief that the net economic impact of illegal immigrants is a positive one. To express this more clearly… Your Maximum Leader has believed that, when viewed nationally, the economic benefit reaped as a result of cheap labor outweighs the cost of services provided to (or otherwise concerning) illegals. Again, the cost of illegal immigration is not borne equally across the various states of our Republic - so people in California pay more than those in Virginia.

Well… The Confederate Yankee provides (in a comment over at Phin’s site) some interesting information on this point. Allow your Maximum Leader to quote in full:

I am probably the first guy you mentioned that told you that immigrants cost more than they give back, so I guess I should have told you that I have the numbers to support that contention.

Start with the Center for Immigration Studies, which places the net loss per year at more than $10 billion/year in 2002 (it has since shot up), and this executive summary shows numbers built from U.S. Census data.

In addition, illegals hurt salaries for legal Americans a significant percent.

Via MSNBC:

“A Harvard University study in 2004 found immigration - both legal and illegal - reduced annual earnings for American-born men by 3.7 percent, or nearly $1,700. For those without a high school degree, the effect was double that, with wages down 7.4 percent.”
[snip]

Immigrants point out they’re not just workers. They’re consumers with money to spend. At Monday’s rallis, they pledged to prove that point by boycotting all spending for one day.

That “spending” is overshadowed, though, by the burden they place on schools and hospitals - draining resources not so much from the federal government, but from states.

“The average native-born household in California paid $1,200 more in taxes than they got in benefits,” says James Smith, a senior economist with the Rand Corp. “Almost all of that was because of immigration’s effect on California.”

Simply Google “cost of immigration” on Google, and choose any source you like. I’ve not been able to find a single source that says illegals have done anything but cost us more than they bring in. Please feel free to show me contrary evidence.

I’d also like to know what sources you can cite to support your claim that the cost of agriculture and construction would triple. I’ve heard anecdotal evidence to the same, of course, but I’ve seen no hard facts to support those claims. History shows that when labor gets too expensive, technological improvements replace those same workers, and those workers move on to different kinds of work. It’s pretty much been that way since the Industrial Revolution.

If we do lose $5-$9 billion in agriculture in the first 3-5 years of a crackdown as this report suggests, we’d still come out about $8 billion/year ahead of where we are now. Factor in similar number for construction (which is generous, because illegal alien employment is not thought to be as high) as we’re still coming out billions ahead. No matter how you slice it, illegals cost more than they put back into the system.

I am open to persuasion, it you can find data to the contrary, I just don’t think it exists.

Interesting stuff, n’est-ce pas? Harvard studies… Rand Corporation… Not your typical mix of right-wing nativist organizations… Your Maximum Leader was contemplating some of the Smallholder’s posts about jobs going overseas and the technology factor was a point he was going to make… But, he didn’t.

Oh… And while you might be perusing Confederate Yankee… Check out his wall idea. Dragon’s teeth. Concertina wire. No landmines though. But there is a handy electrified wire on top of the concrete/aggregate wall!

Your Maximum Leader might rethink his position on the overall economic benefit of illegals…

But anyho…

Let him restate a few items… More border guards are good. Wall is good, but unworkable for a number of reasons. Legal immigration is good (a subject your Maximum Leader hasn’t hit on in a while). And he would be happy to offer some sort of amnesty program to illegals in this country - if we could stem the flow of new illegals.

Oh yeah… We need to seriously re-evaluate our nation’s position on being a citizen by virtue of being born on US soil…

Carry on.