There are currently numerous federal laws prohibiting non-US citizens from coming across the national border without receiving prior federal government approval. I will address whether the federal government has the Constitutional authority to make such laws in a later editorial. For now, I want to ask how does this immigration effect our money?

How do foreigners effect my pocket book? In my opinion this should be the only question you ask when it comes to immigration. Be selfish … for your own good.

The first effect is welfare. Illegal immigrants coming to this country have no legitimate claim to government welfare. Actually no one does. Governments steal the labor of our citizens and residents in the form of taxes placed upon our income, purchases and services. After taking a substantial administrative cut, government then doles this booty over to select citizens and residents that it determines are more deserving of the loot than the laborer (you). This is a familiar promise: From each according to their ability, to each according to their needs. This is outright armed robbery when government coercion is involved.

Notice I chose the word, “residents,” in the above paragraph. That includes both legal and illegal immigrants. Both pay taxes. The illegal residents may not even file income tax statements for fear of getting caught. Consequently any unclaimed withholding is confiscated by the government.

Should illegal aliens file their 1040’s, since they are disproportionately found in the lower income brackets they are more likely to qualify and apply for so called “Earned Income Credits.” Which is another socialist retribution of your stolen wealth government program.

Now note: The illegal aliens in the above examples have had an indirect effect on your pocket book. The direct effect has been the government theft of your earnings. The indirect effect: A greater pool of titsuckers is created that line up to suckle on that sow that consumes the earnings that were stolen from you. This is offset to some extent by the similar theft of earnings of the illegal immigrants. But if you wish to attack this problem, it is not the illegal immigrants who are taking from you, (unless you are on the government tit). It is the government that is taking directly from you in either confiscated wages, or in higher prices on goods and services making your money worth less.

The second way illegal immigrants effect your pocket books is goods and services. They directly effect how much money you have left over after you buy a good, or contract for a service. They do this by being willing to work at a task for the lowest possible labor price that can be gotten for that labor. They consider this income in exchange for supplying their labor a good deal for them. For you, it means the good or service you are interested in consuming is purchased by you at its lowest cost to you. You both come away from the deal feeling like winners.

Now artificially the government can come in and regulate this price to you, by denying access to those people from around the planet who are willing to provide this labor at a price below that of people present in your community. You can support that and pay more of your pay checks towards goods and services — leaving less left over for savings, investment or other purchases.

Simply put, you can pay someone $25 to mow your lawn. Or you can pay someone who grew up in your community $50 for the same job. The person from your community looks at your yard, and intuitively knows the labor he provides for that task isn’t worth much less than $50 to him. But an immigrant who will save and take most of his earning home, looks at your lower offer as well worth his labor. It seems like a good deal for you both. He gets capital from his labors that he can use back home to propel himself into the middle class. You get to convert more of your dollars (labors) into services and goods, savings and investments for yourself.

And what about that local guy who would not mow your lawn for less than $50? First off, you are not responsible for him. You are responsible for yourself. And just like you are taking responsibility for yourself, he (or she) will take responsibility for himself and do something else with his labor. And his earnings from that endeavor will likewise, go further thanks to the immigrant influx.

Now that potential "lawnmower" could go to government. He could plead that government should bar those workers that are undercutting him. So that you would not have a choice of paying someone $25 to cut your lawn. You would only have the choices of having him cut it for $50 or cutting it yourself. Government does this all of the time on so many levels, making goods and services cost more than the fair market value to you. And that just takes more of your dollars out of your pocket.

Now the third cost to your earnings is the cost of trying to keep these aliens out of the nation. The cost of detecting and processing and deporting them once they have successfully made it into the country. I can see why government fails so abysmally. If they succeed the size of the Border Patrol and Immigration and Naturalization Service (whatever their new moniker) would be, at best, held at a standstill instead of annually growing.

Also, if the government was successful it would lose an important source of income they already steal from.

Lastly, the government would lose the whipping boy they use in the form of xenophobia: foreigners, “not like you and me,” “illegal aliens” with which they place so much FEAR into you. It is so easy to manipulate you with fear. You will approve walls, fences, National ID cards, ‘your papers please,’ work permits, military and prison expansion, … on and on, because of your fear. But that is another editorial.

So me, I say open the borders. Let anyone who wants to come and mow my lawn and clean my house, car, build my home, pave my streets, deliver my mail come and give it the old American try. And my dollars will go further. Now if only we could do something about that government.