Immigration and legalisation (in the USA)

[Adam L]

Yep, you are reading it pretty well.

Adam L

[tequila]

Am I way off here or am I reading this close to correctly? It can be hard to filter through all the partisan screed on both sides of the issue to make sense of it.

I think you are presuming that all illegal immigrants have the same level of education and similar interests. They are not all day laborers waiting for a truck in a Home Depot parking lot.

For instance, over 40% of illegals are people who come to the U.S. on a visa of whatever type and overstay their time. They often are of quite diverse education levels. Legalization for them may mean that they can utilize their skill set for something besides low-level labor and service jobs.

[Stan]

I recall an article this year on immigrants actually paying more taxes (via falsified SSNs among other things) on their wages than the average American, despite the fact that they are not entitled to education and health care to name a few.

In sum they are doing the jobs Americans won't (for even less wages) and being taxed too