Be sure you check out the full report on illegal immigration here.
What Would A #DayWithoutImmigrants Look Like?
Left wing activist groups, with help from the mainstream media, have christened Thursday, February 16 as the so-called #DayWithoutImmigrants.
They are trying to persuade (coerce) both legal and illegal immigrants into skipping work, in order to show President Donald Trump, and his “racist” supporters, that America couldn’t function without them.
Why?
They disagree with Trump’s immigration policy, particularly the so-called “Muslim ban” (which doesn’t target Muslims, and isn’t a permanent ban)—a policy which the majority of Americans support, by the way.
Here are a few examples of what #ADayWithoutImmigrants looks like on Twitter:
#DayWithoutImmigrants
Remember folks pic.twitter.com/rh1KPGVKON— John De Vito (@JohnDeVito) February 15, 2017
Let's show Trump and everyone supporting him how powerful we really are. Spread the word. #DayWithoutImmigrants pic.twitter.com/41pwF4vavx
— Yung Ku (@PapiYungKu) February 15, 2017
Tomorrow. #DayWithoutImmigrants pic.twitter.com/GcBV76VCEP
— Miguel (@Migatron81) February 15, 2017
If they want to skip work, good for them; I don’t care.
But they do bring up an interesting question: what would a day without immigrants, specifically illegal immigrants, really look like?
How Many Illegal Immigrants Live In The US?
First thing’s first, how many illegal aliens live in America?
In all honesty, no one really knows.
They’re undocumented. That’s the whole point.
Estimates are wide-ranging.
On the low end, Pew Research estimates that there are roughly 11.1 million illegal immigrants currently living in the US—a number which tracks fairly closely with official government figures.
On the high end, we’re looking at roughly 30 million people. This number’s been articulated by conservative author Ann Coulter in her book Adios America. She based the figure off banking and remittance payment records, demand for government services, and migration detentions and projections from ICE.
Frankly, I find Coulter’s number more compelling—if you’ve been to LA recently, you’ll probably agree.
But for the purposes of this article, I’ll use the lower number.
A Day Without Immigrants Would Save America $351 Million
According to a 2013 report from the Federation For American Immigration Reform (FAIR), illegal immigration cost the US $113 billion in terms of services (healthcare, policing, education); $29 billion at the federal level and $84 billion at the state and local level.
This is from 2013, so of course the number’s probably higher now.
Either way, it’s large, especially when you consider that illegal immigrants only contribute $11.6 billion in taxes (many don’t pay tax, as it turns out.
On top of that, illegal immigrants also send enormous amounts of money from America to their homelands in the form of remittances—they work in the US, send the money home. Money evaporates from the economy.
A Pew Research report from 2015 calculates that $133.6 billion was left America in the form of remittances.
Do we know how much was sent away by illegal aliens? No.
However, if we assume that this money was sent by people who were born in foreign countries, this gives as a pool of 40 million foreign born US citizens and 11.1 million illegal immigrants.
Let’s assume, for simplicity, that they’re equally likely to send remittances.
This means that illegal immigrants send roughly $26.72 billion out of America per year.
All totaled, illegal immigration costs the US $128.12 a year.
Therefore, a single day without immigrants would save the US $351 million.
Sounds like a good deal to me, especially since 23 million American citizens are currently unemployed.
Just be glad you’re not in Sweden.
