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: Janitorial services, crop pickers and garbage collectors need workers, and they do not find them from high-school-educated, English-speaking citizens. As a demonstration of this fact, in Georgia, a 2011 crackdown on illegal immigrants caused many to be deported and more to flee the state. This caused a shortage of labor on the state's farms, indicating that illegal immigrants in that state do not compete very much with Americans for jobs. "Immigrants are a drain on the U.S. economy"
Immigrants actually wield considerable economic power. In 2014, there were 8.7 million foreign-born homeowners, and immigrants contributed $32.9 billion into the Medicare trust versus the -$68.7 billion deficit generated by natural-born Americans. In 1995, naturalized citizens living in New York had a higher per capita income (est. $24,000) and average taxes paid (est. $8,500) than native-born U.S. citizens in the state (est. $18,000 and $6,500 respectively). Immigrants fill jobs in key sectors and create jobs by establishing their own businesses, with an estimated annual benefit of $10 billion to the U.S. economy.