Patrick Buchanan Immigration Analysis

Words: 980
Pages: 4

Illegal immigration is one of the most controversial topics. Numerous people believe Third World immigration is a threat to America’s way of life. Others argue immigrants are beneficial to the United States. Two people who display strong opposite opinions about this issue are Patrick Buchanan and Ben Wattenberg. Patrick Buchanan believes illegal immigration causes harm to our country. In contrast, Ben Wattenberg thinks illegal immigration helps shape America.
Patrick Buchanan starts by stating Mexicans and other Third World immigrants are failing to conform to the American lifestyle. Buchanan believes assimilation cannot occur because most of Mexican Americans are highly concentrated only in the Southwest (Buchanan, 49). Patrick Buchanan feels
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Buchanan believes Mexican Immigrants bring forth no economic benefit. Patrick Buchanan argues these immigrants bring no positive outcome because over the years the costs of schooling, welfare, prisons, plus pressure on land, water and power sources have excessively increased. The cost of immigration in the year 1995 was 80 billion dollars (Buchanan, 53) and Patrick believes the cost will rise. Buchanan also points out many social liabilities that occur from Mexican Immigration. One being millions of immigrants who come to the United States have not finished high school, and “22 percent do not even have a ninth-grade education” (Buchanan, 53). According to Patrick Buchanan, Mexican Immigrants portray no beneficial use in the economy because he believes the majority cannot earn a well-paying job with their low educational background. Other problems Patrick Buchanan sees as major social liabilities include the increased use of food stamps, Supplemental Security Income, school lunch programs, the increased number of arrests, and the increased number of criminal aliens housed in federal and state prisons. Furthermore, Patrick Buchanan presumes Mexican immigrants constitute an economic and social …show more content…
Wattenberg considers immigrants to be the majority of the population in the United States. He believes without immigration our population would be declining rapidly and our population would remain unstable. Wattenberg points out our population without immigrants would be unstable for the reason that American women on average do not have enough babies to maintain a normal population. Therefore, Ben Wattenberg argues the largest contribution to the population are the immigrants and their families. Ben feels it is important to keep the population increasing considering it is what makes us become a stronger nation and a “swamper of others in the global competition of civilizations,” (Wattenberg, 56). Furthermore, Wattenberg wants the United States to make immigration safer and to increase the immigration rate. He feels American must thrive, and the United States could benefit by taking in both high and low skill immigrants. Wattenberg conceives a rising population can also hugely benefit the economy. Economically, he feels having a large population is greater to maintain because then, a number of customers for businesses will be increasing. Ben Wattenberg affirms Mexican immigrants constitute an economic and social asset to