Defending the Wicked Part 4: Illegal Immigrants

This will probably be the most relevant out of all the wicked people that I consider to today's time. Immigration is a very much debated topic here in the United States. The illegal immigrant is accused for being wicked for many reasons. The reasons that I have seen used by people against immigrants were the following: they cause crime, if we do not control our immigration everyone would come into the US and there be a population problem with too many people, they use our welfare system to take away from our benefits, and they steal our jobs.

Let us begin with the first argument, illegal immigrants cause crime. This is the weakest out of all the arguments against immigration. The serious problem with this argument is that it only focuses on the bad illegal immigrants that cause crime while ignoring all the good ones that just want to come here to improve their standard of living. If the number of bad illegal immigrants is 1/1000 people then that is a terrible argument argument against immigration. I can likewise make an argument and say that the United States should kick out all the men because most criminals in jail happen to be men. Do you see how ridiculous of an argument that is? Stop concentrating on the exceptional cases and look at the whole situation.

The second argument is not very common but I heard it used. The argument is that immigration has to be controlled because otherwise so many people would want to move to the United States that we will have an over-population problem. This is also a weak argument. The population of a country or the world self controls itself based on the predator-prey cycle and the dynamics of the market, you can read more about why this is not an issue here.

The welfare argument is actually a good point that anti-immigration people have. The argument says that the problem with immigration is that immigrants take advantage of our welfare system and as a result less benefits become available to the citizens. And this is a good point. However, I do not see this so much as an argument against immigration but really as an argument against welfare. If we had no welfare system to start with then the immigrants will not be taking anything away because there is nothing to be taken away. The other problem with the welfare argument is that legal immigration is a problem, not illegal immigration. Illegal immigrants would not be eligible for welfare benefits and so the whole welfare argument is really directed towards legal immigrants. This is why illegal immigration is better than legal immigration. Milton Friedman explain this point really well here and here. So the welfare argument, even though it has a good point, is still not an argument against illegal immigrantion.

The last argument and this is probably the most popular argument which is that illegal immigrants (in particular Mexicans) "steal our jobs". Let us get something clear. Jobs cannot be stolen. You do not own your job, your employer gives you your job and then he stops giving it to you. That is not stealing. Saying that illegal immigrants steal your jobs is the same as saying that one competitor steals costumers from another competitor. It makes no sense. So instead of saying "they steal our jobs" say that "we lost our jobs because the illegals work for less". And that is true, people have lost their jobs because he illegals are willing to work for less because for them a job is more valuable than for a citizen already living in the United States. Is that a valid argument against immigration? No. Do you know what else made people lose a lot of jobs, millions and millions of people? Computers. Does it make sense to say that we should get rid of computers because they cost people their jobs? You know what else made people lose a lot of jobs? Railroads. Before railroads men would be employed to carry heavy stuff on their back or possibly with animals. Now this is no longer necessary and all those jobs are gone. The entire point about employment is that jobs are constantly being created and constantly being destroyed. There is no fixed amount of jobs available. At one point there can be a lot of jobs and at another point there can be very few jobs. Furthermore, when jobs are being destroyed new jobs are being created. A lot of people who lost their jobs because computers were invented, but a lot of people also got new jobs that are all dependent on computers. The market is a very rapidly changing system. And as a result jobs are destroyed and new ones are created. What we need to remember is that progress is taking place despite a lose in jobs. When computers replaced people that was progress, that was a step forward. When railroads replaced people that was a step forward also. Illegals replacing citizens is a step towards progress too. The illegals are making their own life better of, and at the same time they are making the economy better off because now everything becomes cheaper. Immigrants are therefore a positive economy advantage (if we are not living under a welfare state but rather in a market friendly economy) for the country. It is true, I will not deny it, that people lose jobs because the illegals work for less. However, as it was explained above, progress always makes people lose jobs. That is the nature of progress. I can understand that it has to suck when you lose your job, but look at it from the grand scale economic point of view not from your own point of view. From the grand point of view the illegals working is a good thing. And that is why illegal immigrants are actually heroic people who should not be condemned as wicked people.

America was founded on immigration. Well ... first it was founded on stealing the land from the Indians and killing out millions of red skinned people, but afterwards it was founded on immigration. If freedom is what used to make America great then it were the immigrants, from all over the world, who build this country into a great country. America has beautiful demonstrated how people, of different languages, different countries, different beliefs, can come together under freedom and work in a rather peaceful manner together. It makes me very happy when I see a Russian guy and a Mexican guy try to understand each other by speaking in English, that is the American way. My father had a Muslim friend who told him "have a good Christmas", my father responded to him, "only in America will you ever find a Muslim blessing a Jew in the name of the Christianity". Immigration is the beautiful aspect of America. Every single time in American history we go through this immigration issue. First, we do not like the Irish. Then we do not like the Chinese. Then we do not like the Japanese. Then we do not like the Jews. And so on and so on. We have lived through this episodes enough times already to realize that it is the same stupid argument this time against Mexicans.