Born In The USA, Ctd

Damon Root sharpens the pro-birthright case:

Those immigrants aren’t coming here to have babies and they aren’t coming here to abuse social services. As Riley told Reason.tv, immigrants “use welfare at lower rates than natives. I should also add that if your concern is that some immigrants are receiving more in public benefits than they pay in taxes, you should keep in mind that so do 67 percent of Americans.” According to the Pew Hispanic Research Center, based on its study of the 2004 Census, the labor force participation rate for illegal immigrant males (ages 18 to 64) was 92 percent, compared to a rate of just 83 percent for native-born males.

So not only does the Republican push to abolish birthright citizenship require disfiguring the 14th Amendment, one of the party’s greatest political achievements, it isn’t likely to have any discernible impact on the number of illegal immigrants entering the country, since the majority of them are here seeking jobssomething they will continue to do as long as there are employers willing to pay. That’s how supply and demand works.

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