Title: Myths and facts about immigration to the United States - RationalWiki
Headings: Myths and facts about immigration to the United States
Myths and facts about immigration to the United States
Contents
The myths
"Illegal immigrants do not pay taxes"
"Immigrants come here to get 'welfare'"
"Immigrants send all their money back to their home countries"
"Immigrants take jobs and opportunities away from Americans"
"Immigrants are a drain on the U.S. economy"
"Immigrants don’t want to learn English or become Americans"
"Most immigrants cross the border illegally"
"Weak U.S. border enforcement has led to high levels of illegal immigration"
Illegal immigrants are the source of many communicable diseases
"Illegal immigrants cause crime"
"The government is not enforcing existing immigration laws"
Problems that arise when blanket deportation is attempted
In a nutshell
See also
External links
References

Content: One study estimates that immigrants earn nearly $240 billion a year. Studies find that immigrant tax payments total $20 to $85 billion more than the amount of government services they use. Since the welfare reform of 1996, when limits were implemented cutting off benefits to two years consecutively or five years cumulatively, this is a bogus accusation. To immigrate into the US, you must have a sponsor (generally the family member, such as the spouse, bringing you into the country) who will testify, and provide proof, that he or she has enough money to support you, if you are unable to support yourself, or if you lose your job. This means that until you naturalize as a U.S. citizen or have been a taxpayer for 10 years, your sponsor's income will be taken into consideration in deciding whether you are poor enough to qualify for means-tested benefits, and that if you do take those benefits, the government can sue your sponsor to recover those costs. You can also sue your sponsor if they fail to support you at the poverty level. "Immigrants send all their money back to their home countries"
In 2014, immigrants contributed $328.2 billion in total tax contributions to federal, local, and state governments. An immigrant's tax dollar is just as green as a native-born citizen's. "Immigrants take jobs and opportunities away from Americans"
This point, while right in the main, a bit disingenuously implies that Indians and Chinese people are actually immigrating still to the US. Rather, they are coming on H1-B visas, which prohibit them from entrepreneurship and which effectively prohibit them from being risk takers in their jobs (e.g. hiring more workers as a manager) for fear of their own job loss and deportation since they can only work for their sponsoring employer.