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I learned that Cinco De Mayo symbolizes Mexico victory over France in Puebla.

September 16th is Mexico true independent day.

More people in U.S. Celebrate it more then in Mexico. Most people that celebrate Cinco De Mayo are those native to Puebla

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February 2011 | View the Full Report ( PDF)

Executive Summary

Today's immigration system is dysfunctional because it is not responsive to the socioeconomic conditions of the country. Only a small share of legally admitted immigrants is sponsored by employers while the bulk are admitted because of family ties to earlier immigrants who may be living in poverty or near poverty. As a result, immigration contributes to an already-existing surplus of low-skilled workers, increasing job competition and driving down wages and conditions to the detriment of American workers. The presence of a large illegal workforce perpetuates a vicious cycle as degraded work conditions discourage Americans from seeking these jobs and make employers more dependent on an illegal foreign workforce. America's massive low-skill labor force and illegal alien population allow employers to offer low pay and deplorable conditions.

These harmful effects of the immigration system were recognized in the reports of the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform in the mid 1990s. The Commission's immigration reform recommendations were welcomed by President Clinton and submitted to Congress, but have largely been ignored since then. Conditions for America's poorest workers have continued to deteriorate because of both illegal and legal immigration. Reform of the immigration system to assure that it does not harm Americans and instead contributes to a stronger more equitable society is long overdue. The reforms that are needed include ending family-based chain migration and unskilled immigration, ending the job competition for America's most vulnerable citizens by curtailing illegal immigration and unskilled legal immigration, and holding employers accountable for hiring illegal workers.

The U.S. has a responsibility to protect the economic interests of all of its citizens, yet the immigration system, which adds hundreds of thousands to the labor force each year, is bringing in workers faster than jobs are being created. Moreover, only a small portion of admissions are based on skills or educational criteria, creating an enormous glut of low-skilled workers who struggle to rise above poverty. In 1995, the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform recommended curtailing family-based immigration and replacing the "failed and expensive regulatory system [for skill-based immigration] with one that is market-driven." Along these lines, the Commission recommended that, "it is not in the national interest to admit unskilled workers" because "the U.S. economy is showing difficulty in absorbing disadvantaged workers." Fifteen years later, U.S. politicians continue to ignore these recommendations, bowing to corporate demands for unskilled labor rather than taking a realistic look at immigration's effect on poverty and the American worker.

Current calls for "comprehensive immigration reform" are nothing short of a push for a massive amnesty that would give permanent status to millions of illegal aliens who are not needed in the workforce, and it would reward unscrupulous employers who profited from hiring illegal workers, providing them with a legal low-wage workforce that would continue to have a negative impact on native workers. The border is not secured and there is much opposition to the mandatory use of E-Verify and interior enforcement. Those who argue against enforcement are not going to decide overnight to support these measures, and politicians have long ago proven that their promise to enforce immigration laws after granting amnesty are not to be believed.

This report contains the following findings:

In 2009, less than 6 percent of legal immigrants were admitted because they possessed skills deemed essential to the U.S. economy.

Studies that find minimal or no negative effects on native workers from low-skill immigration are based upon flawed assumptions and skewed economic models, not upon observations of actual labor market conditions.

There is no such thing as an "immigrant job." The reality is that immigrants and natives compete for the same jobs and native workers are increasingly at a disadvantage because employers have access to a steady supply of low-wage foreign workers.

Low-skilled immigrants are more likely than their native-born counterparts to live in poverty, lack health insurance, and to utilize welfare programs. Immigrants and their children made up 32 percent of those in the United States without health insurance in 2009.

Research done by the Center for American Progress has found that reducing the illegal alien population in the United States by one-third would raise the income of unskilled workers by $400 a year.

Defenders of illegal immigration often tout the findings of the so-called Perryman Report to argue that illegal aliens are responsible for job creation in the United States; yet, if one accepts the Perryman findings as true, that would mean that only one job is created in the United States for every three illegal workers in the workforce.

It is true that if the illegal alien population decreased the overall number of jobs in the U.S. would be reduced, but there would be many more jobs available to native workers - jobs that paid higher wages and offered better working conditions.

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Immigration, Poverty and Low-Wage Earners: The Harmful Effects of Unskilled Immigrants on American Workers (2011)

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Today's immigration system is dysfunctional because it is not responsive to the socioeconomic conditions of the country. Only a small share of legally admitted immigrants is sponsored by employers while the bulk are admitted because of family ties to earlier immigrants who may be living in poverty or near poverty.

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The negative effects of rampant illegal immigration into the United States - article by Waldo Benavidez - Defend Colorado Now - a Colorado immigration reform organization supporting initiatives and legislation to stop illegal immigration and stop illegal aliens from residing in Colorado

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The negative effects of rampant illegal immigration into the United States - article by Waldo Benavidez - Defend Colorado Now - a Colorado immigration reform organization supporting initiatives and legislation to stop illegal immigration and stop illegal aliens from residing in Colorado

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Posters on metro buses and trains in St. Louis will now welcome you to the city in 17 different languages, one of the many initiatives begun by the St. Louis Mosaic Project to create an atmosphere that welcomes and encourages immigrants to the area. Signs in the public transit system aren't just designed to look pretty, however, but acknowledge that for many immigrants, particularly those new to the St. Louis region, this is their primary means of going to work or school, shopping, and taking part in all the community has to offer. "The Mosaic Project says a lot about where our region is going," St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley said. "We want to be more diverse and see things from different points of view."

St. Louis is on to something, as a new report from the Americas Society/Council of the Americas and the Partnership for a New American Economy makes clear. According to the study, immigrants help to preserve existing jobs, create new jobs, and stabilize or strengthen the housing market, which all help to rebuild local economies. The report highlights three key findings for the more than 3,000 counties across the United States:

Immigrants are creating and preserving U.S. manufacturing jobs. As the study shows, "immigration adds a talented workforce that helps bolster the manufacturing industry and protects U.S. manufacturing jobs. For every 1,000 immigrants living in a county, 46 manufacturing jobs are created or preserved that would otherwise not exist or have moved elsewhere." Furthermore, the analysis reveals that America's newer manufacturing centers are also immigration epicenters, and immigration to small towns has kept manufacturers in those places open.

Immigrants are increasing U.S. housing wealth to the tune of $3.7 trillion. In particular, the 40 million immigrants in the U.S. add $3.7 trillion to U.S. housing wealth nationally. In June, the two organizations released an interactive map as a precursor to the full report. As Immigration Impact previously reported, the map indicates "that immigrants, through their housing purchases and other economic activity, help stabilize housing values in communities that would have otherwise experienced declining home prices."

Immigrants are making once-declining areas more attractive to the U.S.-born population. "For every 1,000 immigrants that arrive to a county, 270 U.S.-born residents move there in response. These residents are drawn by the increasing demand for service-oriented businesses ranging from restaurants to law firms and by the employment that is preserved in sectors like manufacturing." The report also finds that immigrants are "boosting civic engagement through participating in their communities and in the military while creating American jobs through entrepreneurship."

As congressional action on immigration reform lingers in limbo, many cities such as St. Louis clearly recognize the real-world contributions of immigrants to their communities and are actively pursuing strategies to attract immigrants and immigrant entrepreneurs, facilitate immigrant integration, and foster a warm and welcoming climate. Ultimately, it's no surprise that places that welcome immigrants are also places that thrive. The Brookings Institution recently described the 10 traits of globally fluent metropolitan areas, one of which is "opportunity and appeal to the world," where metro areas are "magnets to attract global investment, new businesses, skilled workers, entrepreneurs, immigrants, foreign students, tourists, and/or business travelers from around the world." Leaders from the local level to the national must bear in mind what Brookings' Audrey Singer and Jill Wilson note, that "immigration is a healthy sign that a region is viewed as appealing and opportunity rich...a place that welcomes immigrants and their families, allows businesses and workers to flourish, and creates an inclusive atmosphere presents unmistakable opportunities.

St. Louis is just the latest example of making those opportunities a reality, and signs in metro buses and trains are just a part of reaching out to immigrants in practical and daily ways. As County Executive Dooley stated, "We have to control our own destiny. In order to do that we have to make a sustained effort to be intentionally inclusive and welcoming."

Tags: Integration, Welcoming Initiatives

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Immigration is a Positive Force for Economic Growth in Cities

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Posters on metro buses and trains in St. Louis will now welcome you to the city in 17 different languages, one of the many initiatives begun by the St. Louis Mosaic Project to create an atmosphere that welcomes and encourages immigrants to the area. Signs in the public transit system aren't just designed to look ...

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This coming Monday, millions of Americans will celebrate Labor Day-a day to recognize the contributions that American workers have made to our economy and society. It is equally important, however, to recognize the contributions of immigrant workers and the positive impacts they have on native-born workers.

For decades, immigrants and their families have played a vital role in the U.S. labor force and economy at large. Today, however, our broken immigration system stifles the contributions of immigrants and in turn withholds significant benefits from American workers.

Comprehensive immigration reform-such as S. 744, the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act, which passed in the Senate in June with a bipartisan supermajority of 68 to 32-would go a long way to improve our immigration system. This common-sense reform would provide legal status and citizenship to the 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States and create a flexible system to admit future immigrants into our country. But as detailed below, immigration reform would also benefit all American workers by improving the earnings of native-born workers and generating new jobs.

Immigrants' impact on wages

Research shows that immigration will positively affect U.S. workers' wages and employment. How can that be? While overly simplistic views of economic theory might suggest that wages will decline in the short run as the supply of labor increases, this is not the case with immigration for two reasons.

First, immigrants generally do not have a direct negative impact on the earnings of native-born workers, as native-born workers and immigrant workers generally complement each other rather than compete for the same job. Native-born workers and immigrants tend to have different skill sets and therefore seek different types of jobs. Thus, immigrants are not increasing the labor market competition for native-born workers and therefore do not negatively affect American workers' earnings.

To be sure, there are some instances when immigrants and the native born are similarly skilled and substitutable for similar jobs. Recent research has found, however, that firms respond to an increase in the supply of labor by expanding their business. Thus, an increased supply of labor as a result of immigration is easily absorbed into the labor market as a result of increased demand for labor, without lowering the wages of native-born workers.

Second, research finds small but positive impacts on native-born workers because of the indirect effects that immigrants have on the labor market and economy. As economists Michael Clemens and Robert Lynch explain in The New Republic, "In some areas of the economy, lesser skilled immigrants have kept entire industries alive." This not only helps native-born workers within the industries but also native-born workers whose jobs are associated or closely connected to those industries.

Research shows, for example, that as new immigrants come into the country, the number of jobs offshored in the manufacturing sector decreases. By ensuring that more manufacturing jobs stay in the United States, not only do native-born manufacturing workers benefit, but the demand for services that the manufacturing industry relies upon-such as the transportation of manufacture goods throughout the United States-also remains high. Thus the "upstream" jobs held by native-born workers in industries associated with manufacturing are also better off as a result of immigration.

Moreover, when one considers how immigration affects different groups of American workers who may be the most likely to compete with immigrants, the positive story still holds true. Research finds that as immigrants enter the labor market, African Americans respond to these changes in the workforce by moving up to higher-skilled-and presumably higher-paying-jobs. In fact, African Americans are three times more likely to transition to higher-skilled jobs as a result of immigration than non-African American workers. Recent evidence similarly shows that an increase in immigration of the magnitude implied by S. 744 would increase the earnings of more educated Hispanic women and men by 1.1 percent and 2.25 percent, respectively.

Combining the research on how new immigrants will affect the wages of American workers with the future flow of immigrants expected under S.744 allows us to estimate the Senate bill's impact on American workers' wages. A recent study finds that the rise in immigration between 1990 and 2006, which increased labor-force participation by about 12.5 million, increased the earnings of U.S. workers by between 0.6 percent and 0.7 percent. Applying these findings to the current and expected future flows of immigration under S. 744 means that the earnings of U.S. workers would rise between 0.4 percent and 0.7 percent as a result of immigration.

Legalized immigrants' impact on wages

In addition to providing avenues for new immigrants to enter the U.S. labor market, S. 744's legalization provisions would greatly improve the lives and economic potential of the currently undocumented immigrants living in the country. Allowing these immigrants to reach their greatest economic potential will have positive economic effects on all American workers.

Research from the Center for American Progress shows that undocumented immigrants' earnings will increase by 15 percent over five years when they receive legal status and by an additional 10 percent over five years when they acquire citizenship. This is because, with legal status and citizenship, immigrants are able to fully participate in the labor force, receive full protection under our employment laws, and find jobs that best match their skills.

In turn, immigrants will spend their increased earnings throughout the economy on things such as homes, cars, and clothing. This increase in consumption means that business will be better off and will lead to higher earnings for American workers. In fact, research shows that within 10 years of providing legal status to undocumented immigrants, the cumulative increase in income of all Americans would be $470 billion.

Immigrants create jobs

Research on how immigration impacts U.S. workers often focuses on how immigration affects the wages of native-born workers. Equally important, however, is how immigration affects employment opportunities for the native born. Research shows that increased immigration does not displace U.S. workers for many of the same reasons that there are not negative wage effects. Another reason that immigrants do not displace U.S. workers from their jobs is that many immigrants create their jobs by starting their own business. In fact, according to the 2011 Current Population Survey, 7.5 percent of the foreign-born population is self-employed. Thus, we can expect that under S. 744, between 600,000 and 840,000 of the newly legalized immigrants would be self-employed.

Not only are immigrants unlikely to take jobs away from the native born, but they can also create new jobs for American workers. According to the 2010 American Community Survey, there were 900,000 small-business owners among current immigrants-close to 18 percent of all incorporated business owners. Yet in the same year, immigrants accounted for just 16 percent of the workforce. The entrepreneurial nature of immigrants, however, is not being fully realized, given that there are 8 million undocumented workers. To be sure, some of these undocumented workers currently run their own business, but these businesses likely exist in the underground economy. Thus, legalizing these undocumented entrepreneurs will formalize their businesses and bring their employees above ground, leading to better job opportunities.

The legalization provisions under S. 744 could potentially bring between 336,000 and 470,000 entrepreneurs into the formal economy.* Given that the average immigrant-owned business hires 11 employees, these businesses would account for between 3.7 million and 5.2 million jobs in the formal economy, which is equivalent to 45 percent of those who are currently unemployed in the United States. Some of these 3.7 million to 5.2 million jobs may be new jobs as a result of immigrants starting businesses and hiring workers for the first time. Others, however, may simply be jobs that are formalizedfor the first time. Nonetheless, whether they are new jobs or recently formalized jobs, the U.S. labor market and economy will be better off, as formal jobs often have higher pay and generate greater tax revenues.

Conclusion

Too often throughout our country's past, immigrant and native-born workers have been pitted against each other in an attempt to stifle social and economic progress. Today, however, Congress has an opportunity to fix our immigration system and improve the economic well-being of all Americans.

Fallacies about the negative impact that immigrants have on native-born workers should not halt the progress that the Senate made in June. Under sensible immigration reform such as S. 744, immigrants would trigger increased wages for native-born workers and generate new jobs. As the House returns from recess next month and considers immigration reform, it is more important than ever to understand the positive effects that immigrants have on native-born workers.
Adriana Kugler is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress and a full professor of public policy at Georgetown University. Patrick Oakford is a Research Assistant on the Economic and Immigration Policy teams at the Center.
* Note: These numbers are calculated by taking 4.2 percent of the roughly 8 million undocumented immigrants who are working in the United States and the 11.2 million undocumented immigrants residing in the United States. To be sure, these estimates include some of the undocumented immigrants who are likely already self-employed in the underground economy. Therefore, some of these estimates will not be new jobs created but instead jobs that will be in the formal economy for the first time.

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Immigration Helps American Workers' Wages and Job Opportunities - Center for American Progress

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This coming Monday, millions of Americans will celebrate Labor Day-a day to recognize the contributions that American workers have made to our economy and society. It is equally important, however, to recognize the contributions of immigrant workers and the positive impacts they have on native-born workers.

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Who: Mexican Migrants

What: Died trying to cross the border

Why: Drowning, Accidents, Incidence of Border Patrol use of force, Vigilante killing, Intentional Killing

Where: Mexico-U.S. Border

When: 1994-2000s

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Migrant deaths along the Mexico-United States border - Wikipedia

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Migrant deaths along the Mexico-U.S. border occur hundreds of times a year because of those attempting to cross into the United States from Mexico illegally. The US Border Patrol reported 294 migrant deaths in the fiscal year 2017 (ending September 30, 2017), which was lower than in 2016 (322), and any year during the period 2003-2014.

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I chose immigration because it's something I had to deal with since I was a child. My parents are illegal immigrant that had to struggle in order to make it to the United States of America. They have always been living in fear that they would be deported back to Mexico and leave us their children hear in the U.S. With a chance that they might never see us agian in their life. They have told me that if they get deported I would be the one to take care of my siblings and make sure they have a good life. I have been around in this city and have heard that Mexican should never come here and to just stay in Mexico, but they don't understand the harsh condition of going weeks without eating, not growing up with your parents or siblings, and the violence that's in Mexico. Imagine your life being control with fear and being force to doing many things only to get money so that your family is able to eat. This is don't by the Narcos, Drug Lords, that don't care about you or anybody as long as they are getting their money; they're capable of doing anything.