# WHY did Illegal Immigration become an Issue Now? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [April 7, 2006, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-illegal-immigration-become-an-issue-now/351709 "2006-04-07T13:08:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![LonesomePolecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@LonesomePolecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonesomePolecat)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2006, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-illegal-immigration-become-an-issue-now/351709/41 "2006-04-09T02:26:46Z")
> [@even sven](#): > > Cos California was so much nicer in the 1930’s when all the fruit pickers where white people. Next time, try to resist the temptation to post when you don’t actually have anything to say. ---
**Author:** ![pantom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/34f0e0/32.png) [@pantom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pantom)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2006, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-illegal-immigration-become-an-issue-now/351709/42 "2006-04-09T03:40:16Z")
No, not at all. Illegal immigration exists because legally getting into this country is impossible for the unskilled and nearly so for the skilled. Some of the bills would ease things for the skilled, others offer some kind of amnesty for the unskilled, but none of them address the simple fact that large numbers of people come here both because they need jobs and because we need them, else they wouldn’t be working when they got here, and that we’re going to need them more, a lot more, in the very near future. What’s transparent is that the debate isn’t about meeting the actual needs of the economy as it exists right now and will exist very shortly in the future, but about pandering to the prejudices and xenophobia of the large majority who also opposed, for instance, the Dubai takeover of a British company that tangentially involved some of the operations of some ports in the US. This debate, if it were actually about reality rather than prejudice, would be addressing the exact issue I brought up: how much immigration is desirable in a future where we can look forward to a chronically shrinking workforce. No one is saying anything at all about that. ---
**Author:** ![LonesomePolecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@LonesomePolecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonesomePolecat)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2006, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-illegal-immigration-become-an-issue-now/351709/43 "2006-04-09T04:20:36Z")
> [@pantom](#): > > No, not at all. Illegal immigration exists because legally getting into this country is impossible for the unskilled and nearly so for the skilled. Some of the bills would ease things for the skilled, others offer some kind of amnesty for the unskilled, but none of them address the simple fact that large numbers of people come here both because they need jobs and because we need them, else they wouldn’t be working when they got here, and that we’re going to need them more, a lot more, in the very near future. > > What’s transparent is that the debate isn’t about meeting the actual needs of the economy as it exists right now and will exist very shortly in the future, but about pandering to the prejudices and xenophobia of the large majority who also opposed, for instance, the Dubai takeover of a British company that tangentially involved some of the operations of some ports in the US. > This debate, if it were actually about reality rather than prejudice, would be addressing the exact issue I brought up: how much immigration is desirable in a future where we can look forward to a chronically shrinking workforce. No one is saying anything at all about that. No, the debate is about the fact that we’ve lost control of our borders, and that the political class in the United States apparently expects America to absorb unlimited illegal immigration while ignoring or denying the disruptions that it causes. It’s about the fact that the upper classes apparently expect the lower classes simply to quietly move over and make room for the new arrivals, regardless of the impact that this has on our lives. It’s about working class people having to compete with illegal aliens for such things as work, low cost housing, and medical care with illegal aliens. It’s about the upper classes benefitting from illegal immigration while the lower classes have to suffer its negative consequences. So insisting that the debate isn’t or shouldn’t be about illegal immigration is not only stupid and dishonest, it’s callous and insensitive as well. ---
**Author:** ![pantom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/34f0e0/32.png) [@pantom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pantom)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2006, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-illegal-immigration-become-an-issue-now/351709/44 "2006-04-09T04:52:11Z")
Nice rehashing of the usual stuff. The actual fact is that the main problem employers are going to be facing over the next few years is replacing retiring baby boomers, given that the number of young workers entering the labor force is going to be well south of the number of older workers leaving it. So, the timing of this particular wave of hysteria over immigration is very suspect. It’s suspect because any rational analysis of what happens to the labor force over the coming decades is going to conclude that increased immigration is going to be needed to keep the economy from stagnation or worse. Not only was there no reason to get that worked up about it in the past, there is for certain going to be even less reason to get worked up over it in the future. The debate _should be_ about opening the borders, and getting rid of illegal immigration by getting rid of the _illegality_ of immigration, and finding practical ways to do that for the overwhelming majority of those who want in, while insuring that we weed out the criminals to the extent possible. Instead it’s being given over to the usual stuff, as in the tired rehashings of long discredited nonsense in your post; if everything you said was true, the US would be the poorest country on the planet. But it isn’t. In fact, it’s the richest. Odd, that. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2006, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-illegal-immigration-become-an-issue-now/351709/45 "2006-04-09T11:10:19Z")
The thread ran off the tracks. It flipped over and burned for three days. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-illegal-immigration-become-an-issue-now/351709.md?page=2)