Here is Mexico (0 threats): See United States Department of State, Country Reports on Terrorism 2017
Here is Canada (3 threats): See same report of United States Department of State, Country Reports on Terrorism 2017
Category Archives: Mythbusters
Undocumented immigrants pay billions of dollars in federal taxes each year
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One of the biggest misconceptions about undocumented immigrants is that they don’t pay any taxes. In his first address to Congress, President Trump set the tone for his coming immigration agenda when he said immigration costs US taxpayers “billions of dollars a year.”
A 2017 Gallup poll that asked survey respondents “whether immigrants to the United States are making the [tax] situation in the country better or worse” found that 41 percent said “worse,” while only 23 percent said “better” (33 percent said they had “no effect”).
The reality is far different. Immigrants who are authorized to work in the United States pay the same taxes as US citizens. And, contrary to the persistent myth, undocumented immigrants do in fact pay taxes too. Millions of undocumented immigrants file tax returns each year, and they are paying taxes for benefits they can’t even use.
The Border Makes America Great
Does Immigration Hurt or Help Social Security?
Another factor that often gets a finger pointed at it by critics is immigration — more specifically, undocumented workers. Peruse social media and, among the fictitious claims that the government raided Social Security, you’re bound to find comments claiming that Social Security is being hurt by legal and illegal immigration into the United States.
But is this the case? Let’s have a closer look.
Undocumented workers, by law, can’t qualify for a Social Security number and therefore are ineligible for a retired worker benefit, as well as disability and survivor’s insurance protection. Unless migrants are on a legal path to citizenship and earning lifetime work credits, they won’t qualify for a benefit from either the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust or the Disability Insurance Trust.
However, this doesn’t mean undocumented workers aren’t contributing in some way to the Social Security program. According to AARP, approximately $12 billion in payroll tax revenue (from either the workers or their employers) was collected in 2010 from undocumented migrants.
Bilingual newspaper changed an Indiana community
Immigration influx to Indiana
The candidates and their campaign advisers undoubtedly are stoking the anti-immigration fires because it’s proven effective in past practice or in polling. But if they want Indiana to grow and prosper, they should back off the fear-mongering. A new report from the Indiana Business Research Center suggests Indiana’s workforce will grow by only 34,000 between 2020 and 2050. The state’s economic future depends on its ability to attract young workers, including legal immigrants.
Matt Kinghorn, senior demographic analyst for the research center, notes the state’s labor force will record a “relatively healthy gain of 120,000 workers between 2010 and 2020” but will likely contract over the next decade as more baby boomers retire. Lower fertility rates affect the labor pool, as well. If rates had held steady to those recorded before the Great Recession, Indiana would see 70,000 more births than are expected in that decade-long span.
Migration is another factor, of course. Indiana saw its population and labor force declining through the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s, but the trend was reversed with gains in net migration between 1990 and 2010. Hispanic residents moving into the state were responsible for 77 percent of the gain, according to data from the Applied Population Laboratory at the University of Wisconsin.
Conflicting Feelings On Immigration
Striker Ricardo Osuna, 17, who just graduated from Galax High and whose father is Mexican, says the Galax community is open and welcoming. But the opposing teams? Not so much.
“When we played, there was a bunch of racism,” he says. “Like, ‘Oh, wetbacks, get outta here!’ Once I got a yellow card, and they were like, ‘Hey ref, give him a green one, he probably needs it!’ Everybody was really mad about it.”
The Latino soccer players have powered the Galax team to four state championships in the last five years. The champion team is celebrated with a triumphant victory parade through town, escorted by fire trucks and police cars.
What Americans totally misunderstand about immigration, in one chart
Immigration may be at the center of the American political debate, but a new Harvard University study shows Americans are missing a crucial piece of information.
Generally, people believe that immigrants are poorer, more dependent on welfare, and more numerous than they really are. That’s according to study published last month by the National Bureau of Economic Research, based on a 2018 survey in six developed countries.
Respondents in all of the countries held strong misconceptions about immigrants and their contributions to society, according to the poll’s results. But the discrepancy between perception and reality was particularly striking in the United States.
One example: On average, US respondents estimated that immigrants made up 36% of the US population. That is more than three times the real share of immigrants in the country, which is 10%.
Immigration Attorney Explains Zero Tolerance Policies
Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to gather this weekend to protest the “zero tolerance” immigration policies put in place by the Trump administration.
Children are no longer being separated from their parents, but more than 2,000 children are still being held in facilities across the. And many people are still upset with the crackdown at the border.
Immigration attorney Christie Popp joined WTIU’s Joe Hren on Indiana Newsdesk to explain the ongoing debate.
Five myths about the refugee crisis
Myth 5: History is repeating and there’s nothing we can do about it
The Holocaust is never far from the surface of European consciences. And its presence has been felt in a range of responses to the refugee crisis – from grand political statements about Europe’s duty to act, to the invocation of the Kindertransport in Britain’s debate over child refugees, to stories about elderly Jewish Europeans helping today’s displaced migrants cross borders. But it can lead us to a Schindler’s List interpretation of history – the one dramatic moment of rescue that either averts disaster, or absolves us of a greater crime.
