Immigrants don't sponge off us. We exploit them.

"The thing that will bankrupt this country more than any other policy is flooding the country with illegal immigration and then giving those migrants generous benefits. The OBBB fixes this problem. And therefore it must pass."
JD Vance, on Twitter/X

JD Vance is wrong.

Immigrants aren't lavished with benefits. They don’t come here to loaf. They come to work their butts off.

Do a thought experiment. Think of three parallel families.

First, imagine Joe and Mary Doe, both born in Medford, Oregon. They marry and have a baby. The baby, call him Robert, goes to public schools and an Oregon college, which costs taxpayers money, then maybe serves in the military, marries and has two kids of his own. Let's imagine Robert finds his way into a career installing and servicing heating and air conditioning systems for homes and commercial buildings, and does pretty well. He earns money, pays taxes, eventually retires and collects Social Security and moves to Sun City, Florida where he dies. A full and productive all-American life, we would say. He was both a producer and a consumer, and the country is stronger because of citizens like him. JD Vance says there aren't enough of those baby Roberts and maybe women should stay home and be a homemaker and make three or more little Roberts. Don't be a "cat lady," he said.

Now let's imagine a second family, Jose and Maria Garcia, again both born in Medford, same everything except they name their baby Roberto, who goes to school and college and the military and ends up working alongside Robert operating the "Two Bobs" Heating and Air Conditioning business. Both families are assets to America, right?

Now imagine a third couple, Ricardo and Rosa Lopez, who crossed the U.S. border from Mexico or Cuba, having fled from drug gangs or communism. They are immigrants, considered illegal now that Trump disallows amnesty claims. They bring a baby in arms, Juan. This third couple finds work, pays income taxes and into Social Security, and enrolls Juan in school. Unlike the other families, the Lopez family isn't eligible for most safety net services, even ones they pay taxes to support. But whatever his birthplace, Juan is a new baby here. If he is allowed to live here legally, out of the shadows, he has equal potential to be valuable to the U.S. over a lifetime of work and paying taxes, both producing and consuming. If the Doe family is an asset to America, and we need more of their baby Roberts, isn't Juan equally valuable?

As regards the financial cost to society -- cited by Vance and other Republican politicians as the real benefit of the OBBB because it funds ICE so it can better deport the Lopez family -- the three families are not the same. The immigrant family, including baby Juan, is the better deal for American taxpayers. People here without documentation are almost certainly working, and most are paying into Social Security for a benefit they cannot collect. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities calculated that in 2022 undocumented people paid $25.7 billion in Social Security taxes.

The image and headline below is from Fox News. Yes, Fox.

Fox News built a story around statistics cited by Unleash Prosperity, a conservative policy group. Unleash Prosperity said that undocumented workers are helping keep Social Security solvent. Fox reports:

"Immigrants tend to be net contributors to the public fiscal because they pay payroll taxes but they don't have parents who collect benefits," Unleash Prosperity co-founder and economist Steven Moore told FOX Business. "Their children pay for their benefits."

There are good reasons for the U.S. to control immigration. Disorder disrupted communities. Life in the gray area incentivizes illegal, under-the-table employment. But Republicans are trying to save the Big Beautiful Bill by claiming that we will save money by deporting immigrants. We won't.

A Norwegian baby

The real issue for Trump isn't immigration. It is what kind of people are the real Americans. Do Americans feel differently because that second family -- also born in the USA -- is Hispanic and therefore "less American." Are their children less welcome to be the future of our country?

The immigration issue isn't about money. The money issue cuts in the other direction. The issue is about blood, language, and ethnicity. Most Republican politicians are reluctant to say it aloud because it sounds racist. Trump says what his supporters think, but are embarrassed to say. That is part of his political appeal. Trump said he wants immigrants to come from Norway.