Dan Weintraub is wrong on illegal immigration

The SacBee's "CalInsider" is wrong about illegal immigration in so very many ways:

My take is that illegal immigration, in and of itself, is a victimless crime. If people come here to work, which most illegal immigrantsdo, they are going to engage in a voluntary exchange of their labor for someone else's money. They are not stealing, and, as a group, they are helping our economy, even if a few people at the lower end of the wage scale see their wages bid down. Illegal immigrants are also not harming legal immigrants or anyone "in line" to enter the country legally. The number of legal immigrants is set without any reference to the number who enter without documentation.

Some of the ways he's wrong are listed in the post and the comments here (note: that site has twice refused my request to comment there; according to the email I received after the last attempt, "LonewackoDotCom" is "anonymous". I guess that would make "Instapundit" "anonymous" too.)

Anywho, here are some of the other ways he's wrong:

Illegal immigration gives corrupt foreign governments power inside the U.S. The Mexican government meddles in our internal politics in many ways:

- their consuls attend city council meetings from coast to coast, encouraging those cities to accept Mexico's ID card, which is used mainly by illegal aliens

- distributing Spanish-language books with pro-Mexico propaganda to U.S. schoolchildren through agencies like the LAUSD

- working with several "human rights" groups, which then conduct various protests attempting to change our laws

For instance, the Georgia illegal immigration march was organized by a former Mexican Consul, one of the organizers of the Chicago 3/10 march is from Mexico's PRD Party and another serves on an advisory council to the Mexican president.

I'd hardly call giving a foreign country political power inside our country "victimless".

(OTOH, there's this 9/05 post: "CalInsider: Arnold should just say driver's licenses for illegal aliens is a bad idea")

Comments

The Sac Bee has fallen from grace ever since the Diana Griego-Erwin fraud was exposed. I would not even wipe my ass with that rag.

Immigration, legal and illegal, has consequences; is that so hard to see?

The current power shortage in CA was caused by growth that exceeded projections by five years. In the last five years we have grown to levels expected by 2011, most of it caused by illegal immigration. What other institutions will similarly begin to fail because of overwhelming numbers?

Uh, Dan, they don't help our economy all that much. Whatever small contribution they make is pocketed by the businesses that hire them, and the rest is captured by the illegals themselves in the form of wages. In fact, they send a good chunk of that money back to Mexico as remittances, so our economy is robbed of the multiplier effect that would occur if the money were spent within the same area it was earned. Looks like a net loss to me.

Maybe he should talk to Dan Walters.