The Fictitious Benefits of Open Borders

Under the Biden administration, over 10 million illegal immigrants have entered the U.S. Harris and other liberal Democrats have refused to protect the border, claiming that the U.S. benefits from illegal immigration. However, their arguments are spurious.

Below is a list of the top reasons they claim illegal immigrants and open borders benefit the U.S., each of which is easily refuted.

Many people argue that illegal immigrants benefit the economy by filling crucial labor gaps, particularly in low-skill sectors such as agriculture, construction, and hospitality.

However, these alleged labor gaps are the result of two factors: the Biden-Harris administration’s policies that have increased financial assistance and transfer payments, leading to a decline in labor force participation, as many recipients find work less appealing compared to receiving free money.

Simultaneously, open borders have dramatically increased the size of the labor pool, driving down wages.

These depressed wages cannot compete with the financial incentives for some individuals to remain at home, further exacerbating the labor shortage.

Simple supply and demand economics demonstrates that an increased labor pool, willing to accept lower wages, depresses wages across low-skill sectors.

Some studies have argued that this only occurs in certain sectors, but by displacing native-born workers in those areas, the overall pool of labor seeking jobs in other sectors grows, driving down wages across the board.

Construction and the building trades are prime examples of industries where liberal social benefit payments, anti-masculine ideology, and open borders have combined to decrease the number of boys (yes, boys) willing to enter the trades, while also driving down wages. This has made the trades less attractive as a career path.

Claims that illegal immigrants contribute to the economy are misleading. Yes, every dollar spent by anyone in the U.S. contributes to the economy, but legal immigrants and citizens contribute more.

The average wages of illegal immigrants are lower, so their contribution to GDP is smaller. Additionally, citizens generally do not send a large portion of their earnings abroad as remittances, whereas many illegal immigrants do.

Furthermore, while some illegal immigrants may pay taxes, all native-born and citizens are required by law to pay taxes and are prosecuted if they fail to do so.

The concept of net benefit is often overlooked by proponents of illegal immigration. The percentage of illegal immigrants, legal immigrants, and asylum seekers relying on public benefits is dramatically higher than that of native-born citizens.

Native-born citizens contribute more per capita, earning higher wages, paying more in taxes, and are less likely to receive government benefits compared to undocumented immigrants.

Consequently, the overall economic contribution per person is much higher among native-born individuals. Additionally, when undocumented immigrants do rely on public services—such as healthcare or education—they create a net strain on these resources, which offsets the positive impact of their economic contributions.

Liberals often dismiss national security concerns regarding open borders, but these concerns are very real and well-documented. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reports that encounters with Chinese nationals at the border have increased by 8,000% since 2021.

Under China’s National Intelligence Law, all PRC citizens are required to assist in intelligence gathering, which qualifies them as foreign agents under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).

Encounters with Russian and Iranian nationals have also increased, raising fears that authoritarian regimes are exploiting U.S. freedoms to position agents within the country.

Additionally, encounters with individuals on the terrorist watch list have risen, with many slipping through custody and being admitted to the country, further exacerbating national security risks.

They claim that most undocumented immigrants are law-abiding. However, many crimes committed by undocumented immigrants go unreported or are underrepresented in crime statistics due to sanctuary policies and catch-and-release practices.

After being released without posting bail, many offenders do not return for their court date and consequently never become part of the statistics on convictions, further skewing the data regarding crime rates among undocumented immigrants.

Even if it is true that undocumented immigrants commit crimes at a lower rate, the total number of crimes increases with their presence.

Furthermore, the nature of the crimes, particularly those committed by transnational criminal organizations such as MS-13, Tren de Aragua, and cartel-affiliated groups, is often violent and linked to drug trafficking.

These transnational crime groups are growing in the U.S., fueled by human trafficking and illegal immigration. Closing the border would help to bring these groups under control and limit their ability to expand their operations within the country.