The economy is not a zero-sum game. 12 million illegal immigrants are 12 million people buying food and clothing and all sorts of other goods, which should create more jobs. Right?
True, but most economic refugees send a large portion of their earnings back to their families abroad. The Mexican economy, for one, would collapse tomorrow without those payments.
The fact that we have large numbers of people in poverty or without health care is not the fault of the newcomers.
Of course not. It is the fault of the same folks that want to be able to continue to employ an underclass without rights, that will continue to depress salaries and labor standards here and in other countries. When "capital" is "free" to move to where labor is cheapest, everyone looses, whether they stay at home or emigrate in hopes of a better life. Those who have health care in the US are loosing it, because their employers can claim (rightly in some cases, er, GM?) that they are at a competitive disadvantage compared to countries w/state-funded health care. Problem is, they want to drop their employer-paid coverage and at the same time fund Repuke politicians who prattle on about the evils of "socialized medicine."
They are also the same ones that try and get one group of workers (US citizens) to scapegoat another group of workers (non-US citizens), so they don't unite against their common enemy. Nice.
These folks aren't going away. I think we are better off regularizing their status and giving them the rights the rest of us have.
I think that's absolutely right. However I don't like the part of the current bill that would "shut the door" to being people being "regularized" and would instead create a legal underclass with no rights. When folks have no rights and can be sent back on the whim of their employer, they will put up with all kinds of bad treatment, which in turn depresses wages and standards for everyone.