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1/n The Census Bureau recently released the latest CPS data. Having examined it, one thing is clear: any honest national debate on immigration reform has to confront the fact that the current family-based system admits a lot of people (some immig. groups more than others)...
2/n...who consistently depend on government assistance to get by. But don't expect any of the Democratic presidential candidates to address this. 
3/n (adjusted for age/year of immigration)
4/n Worth speculating what these figures will look like if a) we maintain the current family-based system, and b) we naturalize millions of illegal immigrants (who would then be in position to sponsor the entry of their relatives)
5/n Instead, what you hear from Democrats/Liberals is 'we're a nation of immigrants;' 'give me your tired, your poor, your hungry'. True enough. But we're also a nation of immigrants who had to find a way to subsist without the luxury of a generous social safety net.
6/n In fact, what gets lost in that trope is that many immigrants who came here (e.g. 1 in 3 Norweigans according to one study) between 1850-1920 but couldn't crack ended up returning home
7/n Pelosi: "Are they saying family is without merit?...Are they saying most of the people that have ever come to the United States in the history of our country are without merit because they don't have an engineering degree?" Families are great Nancy...
8/n ....but they don't pay for themselves
9/n And they'll have a hard time paying for themselves without a college degree.
10/n But beyond taxing the welfare state, the importation of inequality conceivably increases grievance politics, as ethnic groups that are socio-economically worse off compare themselves to more successful others (which is what Social Identity Theory predicts) and...
11/n ...blame the latter (for racism, discrimination etc.) for their condition
12/n To be fair, for a Democratic candidate to confront this would be a political liability. Much of the party's base has gravitated towards an immigration position that, at the very least, is not 'anti-open-borders'
13/n A majority of Democrats now also prefer prioritizing family-ties (i.e. maintaining the status quo) over the types of traits that keep people off welfare/ensure a strong and growing base of those who contribute more than consume
14/n To be sure, some of the blame for the continuation of the SQ can be directed at Tea Party House Republicans who effectively killed a major overhaul bill (they thought it granted too much amnesty) in 2013. While I understand their concerns...
15/n I don't see a way out of this other than through compromise. In other words, any pathway to citizenship (which I support, if only because it seems impractical to deport 11 mil.) MUST be accompanied by a shift to merit-based immigration and stronger border enforcement.
16/16 If the Democratic Party refuses to go there, I only hope that another 4 years of Trump will change its mind
17/17 Forgot to mention this, but maybe it's just a coincidence? 🤔
18/18 Lest anyone (reasonably) think assessing the data by % is misleading, I've started graphing the mean dollar values per recipient. Medicaid variable only runs to 2011, so have to see if I can fill in data for the missing years.
19/19 Medicaid (again, data ends in 2011)
20/20 I recognize and largely agree with @epkaufm's point that opposition to immigration is largely culturally motivated. But I also think there's a relationship between the economic and cultural insofar as between-group inequalities fuel grievance politics and demands for...
...redress/accommodation on the part more successful groups. I think that what many social scientists interpret as 'loss of privilege anxiety' is largely people not wanting to be blamed/having to pay for the shortcomings of others.
So, basically, the largest population foreign-born population (including the largest pop. of naturalized citizens) consistently consumes the most welfare while consistently paying the least in taxes (note: dollars not adjusted for inflation). Got it.
Figures for naturalized citizens vs. natives (=US-born sample mean)
Note: I'm not blaming Hispanics or any other group here. They're doing what's rational under the circumstances. I'm only objecting to a system that pays little heed to the long term consequences of non-selection.
If Hispanic immigrants were selected more on ability from the get-go, I'd imagine these graphs would look much different.
If you want to understand some of the moral psychology/impulses that underpin the resistance of some Democrats to 'merit-based' immigration, look no further
