Undocumented immigrants give much to US despite dysfunctional Visa program

Editor:

Mr. Lauricella, I have no intention at changing your mind about anything, so please disregard the following.

On the matter of immigration, you stated, “Come in the front door. Prove your worth. Come on a VISA, we know who you are, then go home.” Clearly you have no idea how dysfunctional the Visa program is.

The Department of Homeland Security shows 178,700,000 immigrants came to this country in 2016 alone. Tourists do not always take the return-flight home. Thousands of Visa’s expire daily and not every individual returns home.

If even 1 percent of those people remain in this country, it’s a significant number. If just 2 percent remain, we are talking about an illegal population greater than Los Angeles. And that’s just  2016. Fed-Ex may be able to track a million packages a day, but our government has neither the manpower nor the willpower to track even a few hundred of these “overstays” – even if they had any idea where they were.

Mr. Lauricella states authoritatively that “China doesn’t take in every kind of refugee. They are smart.”  Um – China has over 100,000 illegal African and Arab immigrants residing in the Guangzhou province alone. Thousands of Vietnamese, North Korean and Mongolian immigrants flood over the Chinese borders daily. If this is your concept of smart, I’ll take a pass.

He mentions a Forbes article with taxpayers spending $18.5 billion on illegal immigration hospital bills. The author of the article desires this cost to be transferred from federal spending to state and local levels since the costs still exists even if these immigrants were here legally. Read the rest of the article, Mr. Lauricella.

The chief actuary of the Social Security Administration, Stephen Goss, states, “We estimate that earnings by unauthorized immigrants result in a net positive effect on Social Security financial status generally.” Mr. Lauricella does not believe or accept Mr. Goss’ assessment because it contradicts his preconceived belief system.

The most recent IRS data (from 2015) shows that the agency received 4.4 million income tax returns from immigrants who don’t have Social Security numbers, which includes a large number of undocumented immigrants. That year, they paid  $23.6 billion in income taxes and another $11.1 billion in state and local taxes but are ineligible to collect on any services (Social Security, Medicare etc). Mr. Lauricella does not believe or accept the IRS’ conclusions because he doesn’t believe illegal immigrants pay taxes.

Mary Miller, performing as Asst. Secretary of Defense for research and engineering speaking in Massachusetts in May 2018 stated, “The U.S. has focused on insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan for nearly two decades and while we were busy taking care of business, our near-peer adversaries – Russia and China – have been investing in technology and advancing at an alarming rate.” Mr. Lauricella does not believe Ms. Miller.

In Michigan last November, Maj. General Robert Dyess stated, “We are vulnerable and will be attacked in the homeland in a future fight against a near-peer adversary.” Mr. Lauricella does not believe Maj. Gen. Dyess.

Mr. Lauricella believes neither Ms. Miller or Maj. Gen. Dyess – and by inference our nation’s entire defense and intelligence communities because in his words “… there is no country that is near or our peers.”

Mr. Lauricella doesn’t believe a lot of people. I proudly count myself as one of them.

Darren Wilson

Lyndonville