The Case Against Amnesty for Illegal Aliens

President Obama’s efforts to grant legal residency and citizenship to the estimated 11 to 12 million illegal aliens in the United States will, if successful, worsen the already poor employment prospects of less-educated Americans and increase the budget deficits of the state and federal governments.

Although proponents of amnesty argue that employers cannot find Americans to perform the jobs that illegal aliens take, the Department of Labor’s data actually indicate that America has a large surplus of unemployed and underemployed workers who could fill these jobs. According to the broad measure of unemployment, the U-6, the unemployment rate for workers with only a high school degree is 17.4%; the unemployment rate for workers without a high school degree is 27.4%. By the end of 2012, the total number of working-age, native-born Americans who were not working had risen to 50 million, up 8.3 million since the end of 2007.

Earnings data also indicate that the supply of workers exceeds demand. Median inflation-adjusted earnings of working-aged American men fell by 28% from 1969 to 2009. Declining incomes signal a glut, not a shortage, of labor.

Illegal immigrants in the United States hurt the employment prospects of American workers. Between 74% and 79% of illegal immigrants have no more than a high school degree. Seven to eight million illegal immigrants are holding jobs. In the absence of illegal immigrants, American workers with a high school education or less would fill these positions. To attract American workers, employers might have to raise wages, but improving the living standards and bargaining power of less-educated Americans is a good thing. By enforcing existing law, which prohibits employing illegal aliens, the federal government could increase the number of Americans with jobs, raise wages, and encourage illegal aliens to return to their home countries.

In addition to darkening the employment outlook for Americans, an amnesty would cost the government trillions of dollars in increased benefits payments, over and beyond the taxes illegal immigrants would pay. Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation estimated that the amnesty proposed in 2007 would cause the federal government to pay out an additional $2.5 trillion in Social Security and Medicare benefits, beyond the taxes the amnestied immigrants would pay in. Further, according to an estimate by Republican staffers in the Senate, if seven million illegal aliens are uninsured, an amnesty would increase spending under the Obamacare program by $300 billion over the next ten years. Spending on welfare will also go up because immigrant-headed households are much more likely to receive government assistance. A CIS analysis of the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey in 2007 found that 46.9% of households headed by a Hispanic immigrant used some form of welfare, versus  6.6% and 38%, respectively, of non-Hispanic white and black households.

Finally, an amnesty would worsen overpopulation and overcrowding in the United States. The Census Bureau projects that under current law the total U.S. population will rise to 436 million by 2050, an increase of 127 million over its current size; 96 million of this increase will result from net immigration and children born to immigrants. America is already a fully settled and overcrowded country. Although we should stem population growth in order to protect the environment and preserve our country’s open spaces, an amnesty would amplify population growth because those receiving legal status would be able to bring in the members of their immediate and extended families living back home; and an amnesty would cause new waves of poor people to illegally settle in the U.S. in the expectation of the next one.


Numbers USA has a form that automatically populates with your representatives’ contact information after you fill in your zip code. You can use the form to fax your representatives a well-written form letter outlining why they should vote against amnesty.