Not an argument you see every day
NC’s own Heath Shuler is pushing a bill to force employers nationwide to check the immigration status of their employees through a government database. The Congressional Budget Office reported that if passed the law would be very expensive. Part of the reason is that the enforcement would drive people further underground, thus depriving the federal government of $17 billion they otherwise would’ve paid in taxes. In other words, the U.S. economy depends in part on undocumented immigrants paying taxes and not receiving anything in return.
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There was an article about this very fact on msnbc or slate many months ago. It was interesting to hear illegal immigrants basically saying that while they know they are here illegally they don't want to break laws and feel that being good citizens (i.e. paying taxes) will hopefully help them get citizenship.
Many people have noted it, but rarely do you see the U.S. government acknowledging it.
In other strange arguments, yesterday's WSJ had an article about how border crossings were down due to the recession and lack of jobs. Turns out Bush's economic policies are actually an effective illegal-immigration strategy.
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