Immigration Blow Back

Rush Limbaugh mentioned today that in 1986, there were approximately 3.9 million illegal immigrants in the country. And according to Limbaugh, those numbers today are between 12 million and 20 million.

Of course, as any good Limbaugh conservative will tell you, this nation is making continual economic progress, and things today are better then they were in the past. So if things are better, clearly this country can stand to have a more than a few more legal immigrants. Yet not only do conservatives raise the specter of illegality, they also raise the red flag of vast hordes of foreigners who don't speak English and will take American jobs.

But with a healthy economy, and record unemployment, it's just hard to give these "reasonable explanations" very much weight. I'll make the point I've made time and time again. When foreigners want to come here to work, and when employers are willing to hire them- when this all occurs in the world's strongest economy- who is it that's really losing out?

I'm just tired of the xenophobic retreads of the No-Nothings, and I'm even more tired of those who would to stick their noses and impose their values in free market exchanges in which both sides are benefiting.