We are a drain on the American economy they say. We seek America for benefits. We are takers and give nothing back. That is what the anti-immigrants say. That is what they want you to believe. Never mind that immigrants make America great. This has been proven many times, but the anti-immigrants refuse to believe so. But the facts remain no matter how much they wish to hide them. The latest?
The Washington Times ran a very telling article on May 17.
You see, it turns out that The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services is desperate for money. So desperate that they are seeking $1.2 billion from Congress just to make payroll. Why does it need money?
The reason is that the pandemic, as well as the Trump administration’s war on immigrants has resulted in less immigrants coming to America. USCIS needs immigrants to make payroll. Why? Because immigrants pay fees to immigrate to America. Yes, even the asylum seekers. It is these fees that pay Americans working at USCIS.
According to the newspaper, the agency needs the $1.2 billion from Congress or it will be forced to layoff its workforce of federal employees in a few months. As if the unemployment rate nearing 20% is not bad enough, adding another 18,866 federal workers to the unemployment lines will just make things worse.
Some anti-immigrant readers are likely thinking, good, we do not need more immigrants so we don’t need our tax dollars paying for an agency welcoming them into America.
The problem with that thought is that the immigration agency budget is funded by the immigrants themselves. According to the Washington Times, 97% of the agency’s budget derives by the fees paid for by the immigrants.
In other words, the nearly 19,000 federal workers are now facing layoffs unless Congress allocates tax dollars to keep them on the job. It did not have to be this way because it was the immigrants that were paying them to work. Now, the tax dollars that the anti-immigrants wrongly thought were being wasted by immigrants now must be used to keep Americans working.
But tell me again how immigrants, like me, are a drain on the American system.
