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When I was in high school I was part of a politics club that I started with a friend of mine. As we were looking to grow the size of the club I invited a junior of mine to join the club, and he invited his friends. When we were voting for who should be the president, that junior of mine had invited more of his friends and they all voted for him rather than the current president. That was a lesson in being careful who you invite into your space and the potential pitfalls of a democracy. Nothing they did was technically wrong, but we felt wronged in losing what was something we started to newcomers, so we just split off and formed another club.
Immigrants coming with wildly different ideas and values who don't assimilate remind me of that experience. There is a lot of effort in giving immigrants, especially unvetted undocumented illegal immigrants, the right to vote and change the shape of this country. Unlike my time in high school, we can't just easily split off and form another country.
I don't have a problem with immigration as a concept in and of itself, as my parents are immigrants and nearly everyone living in the US today have their roots in immigration. To be honest, I'd rather the US take in high-IQ, well-mannered, conscientious individuals from other countries so that their intelligence is used for the benefit of the US. The biggest problem with immigration right now is the large number of undocumented illegal migrants coming into the country.
Illegal immigrants who do work tend to fill in the role of low-skilled labor. These are jobs nobody is willing to work at the rates employers are willing to pay due to the high minimum wage. Low-skill jobs should go to low-skill workers for the value it's worth, typically teenagers and other people who haven't had time to learn/pick up skills. States like California may have high minimum wage but their economy is also full of illegal migrants working under the table for below minimum wage pay. That means less taxes are paid, but in California, they are still eligible for a whole slew of welfare-type assistance programs.
The immigration problem is less a problem with immigrants specifically and more a problem with the system that incentivizes the wrong type of immigrants to keep coming. There is a short-term incentive to bring in a bunch of outsiders, from economic benefits for a country that isn't able to sustain its growth through its birthrate, to bringing people that would vote for your party instead of the opposition party, but the consequences in the long term are dire.
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