On Immigration, Pay Attention To Milton Friedman









In other words, "If someone offers you a gift, you take it," as Friedman has said.

According to the Center for Immigration Studies, 57% of all immigrant households with children use at least one welfare program, compared to 39% for native households with children. Illegal immigrants are high users of food assistance and Medicaid, but legal immigrants are consistently higher in the use of all welfare programs including those that illegals do not qualify for.

What it shows is "you cannot simultaneously have free immigration and a welfare state," as Friedman said in 1999.

The University of Chicago Nobel Laureate understood precisely why, pointing out that in its own paradoxical way, illegal immigration is actually a good thing but — "only good so long as it's illegal.

"Why? Because so long as it's illegal the people who come in do not qualify for welfare, they don't qualify for Social Security, they don't qualify for the other myriad of benefits that we pour out from our left pocket to our right pocket," Friedman said.

Amnesty will ensure that illegals get those benefits — without ever being screened as desirable, contributory, productive, or any of the things that should make legal immigrants beneficial to the country and the American people who welcome them.