Let Them In

May 1, 2008
Anticipating the upcoming presidential election, Riley, a member of the "Wall Street Journal" editorial board, here addresses six aspects of the American immigration debate. He begins with a compelling look at the issue from a historical perspective, demonstrating surprising anti-immigration links among the Sierra Club, Planned Parenthood, and a white supremacist known as "The Puppeteer." He then asserts that immigrants overwhelmingly tend to be either unskilled laborers or extremely skilled specialists and so are therefore not competing with average Americans for jobs. Riley writes of his belief that immigrant workers have various positive economic and practical effects on the American job market, and he argues controversially that if America were to switch to exclusively consumption-based taxation, the effect of illegal immigrants on welfare would be a nonissue. His conclusions support economist Gordan Hanson's claim that there is little evidence that legal immigration is economically preferable to illegal immigration. Unfortunately, Riley relies on sweeping generalizations and percentage-based statistics of vague provenance to support his points. A great conversation starter but not a stellar reference source; recommended for public libraries.Robert Perret, Southwestern Coll. Lib., Winfield, KS

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