Just wanted to say it’s good to have found your blog. I never met you personally but my mother knows you (native Hyde Parker) and says HI.

I was just watching the documentary about your former organization (I also saw it at the Three Penny when it came out) and stumbled on your blog while doing some research.

Anyway, I am an immigration attorney so I have read some numbers on all of this and you’re absolutely right that it’s xenophobia rather than fact based anger.

The undocumented can’t get welfare benefits and they all come here to work so they have a higher employment rate than US citizens. They also fill complementary positions (for the most part) rather than competing directly with the American worker. Nationally they benefit the economy by lowering the costs of goods and services. Some number show that they lower the wages of those Americans who lack HS diplomas from less than 1 percent to about 3 percent. But the cheaper goods and services more than offsets this on a national level as those who lack HS diplomas generally do not make very much money so 1-3% is the equivalent of only a few hundred dollars at most.

Of course Lou Dobbs and those even more on the fringe (if that’s possible) will not share facts with you. Instead, they’ll just show you pictures of scary Mexicans.