Footage from a campaign event shows that when it comes to immigration, Democratic presidential front-runner Joe Biden wants more.
A lot more.
“We could afford to take in a heartbeat another two million people,” Biden said when speaking to Iowa’s Asian & Latino Coalition back in August.
He then pledged to “increase the total number of immigrants who are able to come to the United States.”
This prompted Fox News personality Tucker Carlson to wonder, “How many of those immigrants will be staying at Joe Biden’s house?” He also could have asked who’s going to pay for them.
A study conducted by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) found that in 2015, households headed by legal immigrants got on average $6,378 in public assistance, compared to $4,431 received by the average native household.
Additionally, it concluded that “the average immigrant household consumes thirty-three percent more cash welfare, fifty-seven percent more food assistance, and forty-four percent more Medicaid dollars than the average native household.”
Biden was speaking of legal immigration, but he’s tolerant of the illegal kind too, having consistently opposed President Trump’s effort to build an effective border wall.
What's more, during a Democratic presidential debate in June of last year, Biden was among those who said their health care plan would cover illegal immigrants.
But the costs of illegal immigration aren't just paid in tax dollars. Another CIS study revealed that states with the largest number of illegal immigrants also suffer from the highest levels of employment-related identity theft; the consequences can be devastating.
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Wages are another concern, with CIS's report to Congress showing illegal immigration harms low-income workers, with minorities impacted the most:
Because most illegal immigrants overwhelmingly seek work in the low skilled labor market and because the black American labor force is so disproportionately concentrated in this same low wage sector, there is little doubt that there is significant overlap in competition for jobs in this sector of the labor market. Given the inordinately high unemployment rates for low skilled black workers (the highest for all racial and ethnic groups for whom data is collected), it is obvious that the major looser in this competition are low skilled black workers.
Finally, there's the costs associated with violent crime, as having an unsecured border makes it easy for previously deported criminals to walk right back in.
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Yet for Biden, immigration isn't just about economics: he also sees it as a helpful way to change America's demographics. At a 2015 State Department luncheon, Biden said that "an unrelenting stream of immigration" means "fewer than fifty percent of the people in America will be of white, European stock." He added, "That's not a bad thing--that's a source of our strength."
However, while Biden may be for open borders, the majority of Americans aren't: a 2018 Harvard-Harris poll reported that only twelve percent of Americans wanted rates of immigration to rise. In contrast, eighty-one percent wanted levels to drop or remain the same (page 67).
What's more, seventy nine percent said immigrants should be selected on the basis of their "ability to contribute to America as measured by their education and skills." That view was held by eighty-five percent of blacks and seventy-two percent of Latinos.
Most of us want a system in which good people who have been properly vetted can come legally. Joe Biden's vision of uncontrolled migration?
Not so much.
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