Immigration, Legal Vs. Illegal
U.S. employers are finding it increasingly difficult to hire enough skilled workers from among the thousands of Americans graduating annually.
The nation is running out of qualified workers in hundreds of specialties, circumstances that, over the longer term, threaten our economy. There are few signs that the population of educated, qualified, working-age Americans will grow sufficiently to meet rising employers’ demands.
Clearly, America’s legal immigration system should be reformed in order to more easily admit and naturalize educated, accomplished immigrants who are able to supplement a domestic workforce which has unnecessarily suffered under a repressive, underperforming public education monopoly and a system of higher education, much of which is more focused on creating “safe spaces” than graduating mature, independent, job-ready citizens.
But, rather than addressing that problem, on his first day in office President(ish) Joe Biden opened our borders to more than ten million never-vetted, mostly unskilled illegal aliens, many with criminal convictions, who are overwhelming American housing, schools, health and public safety.
At The American Experiment, David Zimmer reported:
“According to the federal government’s own data, there have been nearly 11 million illegal border crossing encounters (2.675 million/year) between 2021 and 2024. By comparison, there were just over 3 million illegal border crossing encounters between 2017-2020 (750k/year).
In addition, border patrol agents have recorded an estimated 2 million “known gotaways” (defined as observed crossing into the US, but not apprehended) since 2021.”
Furthermore, the National Counterterrorism Center has identified nearly 1,200 alleged terrorists illegally in the U.S, among them MS-13 and Tren de Aragua gang members, the Sinaloa Cartel, and illegal foreign nationals from countries connected to an ISIS-affiliated human smuggling network.
Today, most Americans disapprove of the crisis Joe Biden created.
The findings on immigration in an April CBS-conducted post-2024 Election Day opinion poll show that seventy-three percent, nearly three out of four Americans say that deporting illegal immigrants is a priority.
Furthermore, 57 percent of Americans support a nationwide program to find and deport all migrants who are here illegally, no matter when they arrived.
America’s illegal immigration problem could have been prevented if the government had simply enforced the immigration laws already on the books. In fact, had there been consistent enforcement, administration to administration, the problem of illegal immigration might never have become serious, much less reached crisis level.
Unfortunately, from January, 2021 to January 2005, Joe Biden was disinterested in, even hostile to his foundational presidential duty expressed in Article Two, Section Three of the United States Constitution: to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed.”
Among its many failures competing for the distinction, arguably, the Biden administration’s greatest failure was open borders. Biden invited in millions with no criminal background checks, vaccination records, English language ability or job skills – in other words, with none of the qualifications required of legal immigrants.
Many Americans view the Biden policies as criminal.
To liberal Democrats, though, the only problem with illegal immigration is that American immigration laws aren’t sufficiently generous and welcoming. Open borders advocates tell us that floods of unskilled and poorly-educated citizens of other nationalities entering the United States illegally are somehow good for the American economy.
Are the laws of economics different in the U.S. and undeveloped/under-developed nations? If having them here is good for us, wouldn’t it be even better for the smaller, poorer countries they came from to get them all back? In that context, wouldn’t deportation be better – and cheaper – than foreign aid?
Frankly, a number of long-term trends are running against the Democrats. For example, Republicans have more babies than Democrats do, and minorities that once voted reliably for Democrats have been gradually shifting toward the GOP. Ironically, Democrats’ open border policies are accelerating that shift. Witness President Donald Trump’s gains in November, 2024.
Accordingly, admitting tens of millions of illegal immigrants is a critically important component of the Democrats’ strategy for achieving and perpetuating one-party rule. Why else would House Democrats have voted against the SAVE Act requiring documentary proof of U.S. citizenship before states register people to vote?
Democrats hope to retake power by adding millions of new, illegal residents who, through pervasive voter fraud, will provide winning electoral margins. And, then, Democrats believe, their children will be able to vote legally.
If there is another, more plausible, more benign explanation, I’m listening…
https://www.pottsmerc.com/2025/05/04/jerry-shenk-immigration-legal-vs-illegal/
