More Illegal Immigration Canards

A few months, I took some shots at Pat Buchanun for his blatant xenophobia with regard to immigrants, both legal and illegal, to the US. The immigration debate was really getting heated up then and nothing has really changed except the vitriol being spewed out on both sides.

While chatting online earlier today, someone brought up yet another reliable standby as their point for keeping illegals out of the US: unemployment. Those familiar with South Park will remember the "they're takin' our jobs" line this mentality conjures up. So, I decided to do a little research.

One would expect, that if illegal workers truly were taking American jobs, the unemployment rate would have skyrocketed to keep pace with the increasing number of illegals entering the country. After all, illegals are not going to show up as being unemployed on official lists since that would get them more trouble.

Turning to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, we find the unemployment rates in the US going back several decades. Since illegal immigration really only exploded in the last few decades, let's take a look at the trend since 1980, always keeping in mind, of course, relevant historical context which had influence on these figures:

<- Regan enters the White House, following an epic recession under Carter


<- Massive tax cuts in addition to increased deficit spending



<- Increased government expansion takes up some of the slack for the unemployed

<- A minor recession
<- Clinton enters the White House


<- Tremendous economic growth, prompted by the tech sector and balanced budget

<- Bush Jr. enters White House, followed almost immediately by 9/11



<- American economy slowly regrows from devastating losses to several industries

Even with the historical context of these years, we would still have to know the populations of illegal immigrants in the country as well. For that, we turn to a Pew Hispanics Center study on that very topic.



To make things a little easier to compare, I broke out my new copy of iWork '08 and gave Numbers a spin (forgive the shoddy chartmaking as it was my first time using the program):

It's quite apparent that while the rate of illegal immigration has been increasing over the last 27 years, the unemployment rate has fluctuated yet remained relatively stable.