Azalea time in Mobile. Beautiful time of the year.
Immigration. As most of you know, I think our problems are more sophisticated than the simplistic my-way or the highway, black-white approaches. I think that most issues have complexities and subtleties we need to consider. Immigration is a complicated issue that goes beyond “let’em all in vs throw’em all out.”
I hope you know I have serious respect for conservative writers who make me aware of complexities without self-righteousness, single-mindedness and name-calling. David Brooks, Thomas Sowell, the late Anthony Scalia and George Will are names that immediately come to my mind.
I saw a recent article by George Will that I believe addresses the complexity of immigration in a meaningful, thoughtful manner. He is not a Democrat; he is a conservative. I believe the article deserves the attention of everyone.
America needs immigrants as much as they need liberty’s blessings
By George F. Will,
This is an opinion column.
Two dissimilar government agencies have inadvertently combined to clarify the immigration debate. Stomach-turning excesses by Immigration and Customs Enforcement have turned many Americans’ abstract political preference into something uncomfortably concrete. And the Census Bureau has demonstrated that the nation needs immigrants as much as they need the blessings of American liberty.
Given a clear binary choice – for or against deporting immigrants who are here illegally – most Americans favor deportation. However:
One Sunday, a moderately pro-deportation American goes, as usual, for brunch at the neighborhood diner. Jose, who has put waffles in front of this American for 20 years, and who regularly exchanges pleasantries with him about their families, is gone. He has been deported for America’s improvement. Suddenly, the immigration issue has a face, and complexity.
President Joe Biden’s choice not to enforce immigration laws poisoned the immigration debate, and led to government behavior today that is deepening distrust of government. The influx during Biden’s four years (8.3 million, more than in the preceding 12 years), torrential and dispersed, has clouded the picture. This, however, seems true:
The foreign-born portion of the U.S. population (15.8 percent) is higher than at any time since at least 1850. But as of 2023, only 27 percent were not authorized to be here. More than half of all immigrants (52 percent) have become U.S. citizens. Prior to the Biden inundation, most undocumented immigrants had arrived before 2010, 43 percent as of 2020 had been here at least 20 years, about one-third were homeowners, and their 5 million children born here were citizens. Talk of sending them “home” is nonsensical.
They are home. For which, give thanks:
The Census Bureau reports that between July 2024 and July 2025, the U.S. population grew by just 0.5 percent, 1.4 million less than in the previous 12 months, primarily because of less immigration. According to the Pew Research Center, during the first six months of this administration, the foreign-born population shrank by more than a million, the first decline since the 1960s. According to the Migration Policy Institute, between 2022 and 2023, for the first time since relevant census data began being collected in 1850, immigration accounted for the entire U.S. population growth.
As the U.S. population ages, those leaving the workforce enter Social Security and Medicare. The nation’s birth rate is below the replacement rate, so immigration must replenish the workforce whose tax contributions fund the entitlements.
Immigrants are 23.6 percent of STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) workers. Nurses (15.9 percent foreign born) and health aides (28.4 percent foreign born) are crucial to an aging America.
A recent Cato Institute report (“Immigrants’ Recent Effects on Government Budgets: 1994-2023”) says: Immigrants “generated more in taxes than they received in benefits from all levels of government.” They “created a cumulative fiscal surplus of $14.5 trillion in real 2024 US dollars,” including $3.9 trillion in savings on interest that did not need to be paid on debt that was not added.
Immigrants were, on average, more than 12 percent more likely to be employed than the U.S.-born population. Cato: “In 1994, the immigrant share of government expenditures was 18 percent below their share of the population; in 2023, it was 25 percent below.”
In 2023, immigrants constituted almost 18 percent of the civilian labor force, and more than a third of them were in management, professional and related occupations, almost double the 21 percent in service occupations (e.g., hospitality). In 2023, immigrant median household income ($78,700) was slightly above that of U.S.-born households ($77,600).
The Cato data comes from static, not dynamic, accounting: It does not, for example, gauge immigration’s dynamism injection: Immigration – risk-taking for improved opportunity – is an entrepreneurial act. Unsurprisingly, immigrants’ workforce participation rate (66.5 percent) is higher than that of the U.S.-born population (61.7 percent), and immigrants’ portions of U.S. patents and start-ups exceeds immigrants’ portion of the population.
As Cato notes, many illegal immigrants who are employed under borrowed or stolen identities have taxes withheld by employers but are ineligible for many government benefits. And they are less likely than others to file returns in order to claim refunds. This is another reason why Cato says:
“Immigrants have created an enormous fiscal surplus for the US government … The $14.5 trillion in savings from immigrants is the equivalent of 33 percent of the total inflation-adjusted combined deficits from 1994 to 2023 without immigrants.”
That fellow having brunch at the diner will still get his waffles. But he will miss Jose, and millions like him, in more ways than he can easily imagine.
Election integrity is a two-way street. Another topic that is complex and has subtleties is the conduct of elections. I do not want a non-citizen to vote. I do not want a citizen to be denied the opportunity to vote. Both of those desires are important.
Each person has to decide which of those two desires is more important. Do I care more about an illegal vote or the denial of a legal vote?
The best evidence I know about illegals voting is a report by the Heritage Foundation. I think this evidence is particularly strong because it was developed by a very conservative think tank.
Heritage’s materials have evidence that documented instances of noncitizen voting are very small in absolute terms—commonly summarized as about 68 proven cases over four decades. Heritage’s broader database tallies roughly 1,500 election‑fraud cases of many kinds.
In addition, President Trump’s Department of Homeland Security has checked more than 49 million voter records, and they find 99.98% of those records represented confirmed citizens.
A funny observation that demonstrates the complexities is occurring in my hometown. I was born in the Ashland Kansas hospital because Coldwater did not have a hospital. Coldwater is my hometown.
Kris Kobach is the Attorney General of Kansas. He took great delight in the discovery that a non-citizen in Coldwater voted in the last three presidential elections and he caught him. The person is a legal resident of the United States but not a citizen. He had registered as a young man and just assumed he could vote.
Turns out he was the Mayor of Coldwater. Also turns out he voted for Trump. Also turns out the very conservative residents of Comanche County do not want him prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
Coldwater mayor: Honest mistakes led to voter fraud charges | KMUW
I do NOT have deep concerns about requiring a photo ID such as a Driver’s license or passport. I do think it is bad if people take steps to make acquiring a photo ID a difficult if not impossible task. Even more important, I object to making voting difficult. A small but clear example is shown in the recent Texas primary.
Texas voters used to be able to vote at any polling place in their county, but in the recent Texas primary in Dallas and Williamson counties, the Republican Party chairs abandoned that system, making it harder for people to vote. Williamson County Republican Party chair Michelle Evans told KUT News in Austin that she could explain why they had made the change, “but at the end of the day, it’s because we can. It’s legal. It’s something we’re entitled to do, and it’s something that our party would like us to do.”
The problem is the Texas secretary of state’s office didn’t provide voters in those counties with accurate information of where they should vote, creating chaos. Democratic Party chair Kardal Coleman in Dallas County and the Texas Civil Rights Project in Williamson County filed emergency petitions to give people more time to vote. A district court judge in Dallas ordered Democratic primary polls to stay open two additional hours, saying that “there has been mass confusion as to where…voters were entitled to cast their ballots on election day, and voter confusion was so severe that the Dallas County Election Department website crashed.” A Williamson County judge ordered two polling places to stay open until 10:00 PM.
Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican who is himself running for the same Senate seat Talarico is, challenged the order, and the Republican-dominated Texas Supreme Court blocked the lower court’s orders. It allowed people who were not in line by 7:00 PM—the original time for the polls to close—to cast ballots, but those ballots were separated from the rest and it is not clear they will be counted.
In case you are someone who just assumes everyone wants any legal citizen to vote, please study our history especially southern history. The Nineteen Amendment assuring women the right to vote was passed after my mother was born. Until that time women were denied the right to vote.
The Supreme Court ruling in Shelby County vs. Holder has led to a disproportionate closing of polling places in minority areas. Three years after the ruling, 868 U.S. polling places had closed. Five years after the ruling, nearly 1,000 polling places had closed, many of them in predominantly African-American locations. Research shows that changing and reducing voter locations can reduce voter turnout.
You may believe the reduction is not intentional. My 45 years living in the South makes me think otherwise. I am of the opinion that there are people working to see that qualified citizens have reduced opportunities to vote. I vigorously oppose making it difficult for qualified citizens to vote.
This and That
March Madness. Both Illinois State University and the University of South Alabama’s Men’s and Women’s basketball teams are in the NIT. A friend who attended ISU texted me with the observation that the NIT is more like what college basketball should be than the NCAA. With the money paid through NIL, the NCAA Championship will be played by professionals. Good thought.
Why return to Genocide?
Trump says white South Africans are persecuted; some are returning to a better life
Unfortunate connection.
Bruce King was on my dad’s Board of Directors when dad was President of the Wichita Bank for Co-ops. Dad knew him well. Bruce was a very successful rancher who became governor of New Mexico. As it turns out he sold his ranch to – Jeffrey Epstein!
Good News
Heart Warming
School Bus Driver Hailed As A Hero After Alerting Sleeping Residents To House Fire
School Dads Surprise Beloved Crossing Guard With A New Car
Peace
Jerry
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