Is Illegal Immigration a Victimless Crime?

Linda L. Barton

With the images of THOUSANDS of people from Central American marching toward our southern border, we must stop our elected officials from turning a blind eye to the threat they bring with them.

A discussion for quite some time is do unskilled illegal immigrants truly lower the wages of blue-collar jobs in the US? With the Democrats wanting to open our southern border to untold THOUSANDS of illegal immigrants, this is a serious topic for many American workers.

I remember when growing up in Central California, how each harvest season there would be low-skilled workers from south of the border come to work. In my area just north of Sacramento, the tomato harvest was a big deal and many high school students would work on the harvesters as a summer job. However, over the years that seemed to change with the influx of Mexican workers taking those summer jobs. Besides, it appears once you get a generation or two from the original ones who came here, their children and grandchildren don't appear to be doing the work anymore.

A tomato harvester in California. Workers stand on the catwalk and separate unwanted items coming up the conveyor belt.

 However, over the years, it has seemed to branch out into other jobs. Whenever I hear a Democrat say we need illegal immigrants to pick our crops I cringe. First, it’s rather insulting to hear that they will do the work most Americans refuse to do. True, standing out in the hot sun, picking produce isn’t the most glamorous job, but I’m sure there are Americans who would gladly take the job if it was available to them for a fair wage. Picking crops, working in a fast food restaurant flipping burgers, mowing yards, among other low skilled jobs used to be a first job. They were never intended to be a career and done to support a family.

 The last time I checked, many workers in other fields have lost their jobs to low skilled illegal immigrant workers who are willing to work for less. I remember how a turkey processing plant in California, Missouri replaced their workers with immigrant workers to cut the cost of salaries they paid. Many of the American workers had been with the company for years, but that didn’t matter to the bottom line. The immigrant workers were bussed in with government approval, and put to work, taking good jobs from more Americans.

We are constantly told how much in taxes illegal immigrants pay. However, do they really pay that much in taxes to offset the expense of having them here? The answer is NO.

In 2017, FAIR's "The Fiscal Burden of Illegal Immigration on United States Taxpayers" report put the total cost of illegal immigration at $135 billion a year, while claiming undocumented immigrants paid only $19 billion a year in taxes. That leaves a net cost to local, state and federal governments of $116 billion per year. If you read the report, you will see just how much they cost the American taxpayer each and every year. With the howls of how we cannot afford to build the wall, this shows that we could pay for the wall the first year and have plenty of money left over to spend on improving things for the American citizen.

Another problem of opening our southern border to illegal immigrants is crime. Not only do we have to contend with violent criminals, but we also have the problem of stolen identities.

According to a recent article in The Epoch Times, studies have found that identity theft done for the purpose of illegal employment by someone in the country illegally represent a very large share of all identity theft cases. It is estimated to be between 30 percent and 60 percent of all identify fraud,”

One such case mentioned in the article states how an illegal alien stole the identity of an elderly man living in Louisiana. This poor man was denied veterans’ benefits and some other things that he was entitled to because this illegal alien apparently had been siphoning off a lot of his benefits and defrauding the man.

The article goes on to state how once identity theft is detected, it’s only the beginning for the victim. One help website says it takes up to 600 hours of contacting the appropriate institutions and agencies, reporting the fraud, getting credit repair, and attempting to reverse the damage.

39 Million SSN Have Been STOLEN by Illegal Immigrants and Guess Who’s Policies Enabled It? Read HERE. 

A quarter of victims end up borrowing money and 15 percent are forced to relocate and sell possessions, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center.

It can also be a huge problem if your credit has been trashed by someone racking up bills or creating a criminal history in your name. This is very difficult to get erased.

So, as you can see, illegal immigration IS NOT a victimless crime. The American people and LEGAL immigrants deserve better. We must force our elected officials to stop the influx of illegal immigrants flooding across our southern border, once and for all.

Please share this post with your family and friends. Building the wall isn't just a campaign slogan, it's necessary to protect our American way of life.