Currently our discussions mainly center why the amnesty or "guest worker" program as bad/good or right/wrong at this specific time.  It is hard to say what the long term consequences are, and I think that government officials have no idea what the true consequences of an amnesty will be.  

What are your predictions/consequences for the long term for our country if an illegal alien amnesty passes?

My thoughts:

A high influx of workers with bolster the social security program for a few more generations.  While this may keep our current program afloat for a longer time, when it does crash it will be much more spectacular.

Cheap labor: many corporations and government officials think amnesty guarantees a source of cheap labor for our country.  The only way this could be true is if our country brought in millions of new "migrants" yearly after the amnesty, as the only reason it is "cheap" labor is due to the workers being here illegally.  The businesses will need to pay into the normal programs when they become citizens, and many will demand more money to be able to afford a house and all the accessories.  Their children will not want to work as cheap labor.

The housing and rental market will be bolstered with many of the new citizens wanting to buy a house or rent their own apartment.

Elections: Your vote becomes worthless.  The current amnesty bills allow the workers here to bring their families, which possibly could mean 100-120 million new citizens.  Estimates vary, but with possibly 50-60 million new voters the new citizens will be the ones deciding all elections in this country.

School Systems: Loads of new students, whose parents don't contribute to school taxes, will lower the amount of money spent on education per child in  the school system.  

Now that the folks know there is an amensty program more illegals will cross the border. Many will die in the desert or at the hands of coyotes.

Many criminals will come across with the "migrants" because the amensty program has no enforcement for the security and background checks.

There will be more illegals in prision and need for more LEO's, driving up taxes.

Many migrants will bring with them the disesase that are rampant in Mexico because of improer use of antibiotics. Disease such as MRSA in the general population, multi antibiotic resistant TB, and Bubonic Plauge (from poor sanitation). Oh and they will import new strains of HIV/AIDS.

The "Migra" lack of healthcare will further strain hospitals. Because they must provide a certian level of care in ER's to all people, the "Migra" will flock to the ER's further bogging them down. The increast cost will be deferred to the paying healthcare consumer.

Eventually the "Migra" will want protected status as a minority and affermative action. Ted Kennedy all ready called this the "Modern Civil Rights Movement".

Read it and weep.

rj

www.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html

Here is a point I have not seen brought up:

Once they become leagal, they will demand "living wages" and "better work enviroments". Veggies will end up costing the same as it we did the work.

And...once they retire/die off, their off spring will not fill in their shoes. The children will be educated (thank you all) and demand better jobs. So now we need MORE immigrants!

Pandering to Mexico...VERY short sighted thinking.

If anything, a big influx of 1st generation citizens will only bankrupt the social security system faster.

But that doesn't really matter because it will crash anyways, no matter what we do now.  

The other big consequence of granting 12 million illegal aliens citizenship in such a short time period is that we'll expand the demographic of people who will lobby for socialism.

These are not property owners.  These are not people who believe in private property.  These are people who see other people who have things, think "thats unfair!", and will vote for people who promise to take those things away from the "rich" people (middle class).

i think the same will happen as in many european countries. Once those immigrants have all the official papers, most of them immediately stop working and start to demand social welfare. Their numerous children wont go to work in the first place and instead choose a more "glamourous" life of a criminal.
In the long run it will cost the american taxpayer huge amounts of money, not to mention that your country will never be the same again.

It depends on the education level of those crossing over.  If they are uneducated, it will just get worse for our schools and other institutions.  

Maybe we should just invest in education in Mexico and help them learn English before they hit the road to the US.    If we got a more educated "illegal" we'd be better off. Most of the illegals, if I'm not mistaken,  are an underclass, lacking in formal education.  It's just the way things are in Mexico.  They may complain about some things here but things are worse there.  One thing is for certain, they will keep trying to come here so we should try and do this in an orderly way and have some better strategies that look a ways into the future.

I read an article today about French youth.  75% of them view a "good job" as a Government job.  They don't want to look too hard to find their "cheese".  When asked what "globalization" means to them their answer is "fear".  I'm not saying we're headed that way but it's a possibility and we need to head off that kind of thinking.

UCA.........
United Continent of America

Don't forget that illegal immigrants are NOT CHEAP LABOR!

We as tax payers subsidize them by providing more tax money to pay for their schooling, their health care, their welfare checks, their public transportation, increased crime rates in communities, additional costs for law enforcement, etc., etc.

Don't be tricked into thinking they don't cost us money NOW.

1. Amnesty today will send a message to all the rest of Mexico to come running because we don't care and we won't enforce the border.

2. Huge repercussions down the road in the form of social welfare programs and a strain on society to pay for everything they demand.

3. Political class warfare between the United States middle class--who for the last 50 years or more have been working our butts off to get where we are now--and the new class of low income illegal immigrants.

4. You'll see it in the voting booths. Illegals are probably 99% democratic. This of course is what all the politicians are worried about - obtaining their votes.

Unfortunately, President Bush is too damn stupid or ignorant to realise these people aren't going to vote for him or the Republican party even if he gives them amnesty. He doesn't care about their votes. I honestly don't know why he is so damn soft on illegal immigrants.

Look at Kommiefornia.

Gun control, broken budget, bad business climate, business moving over the state line, overcrowded prisons, progressively worse medical care, health insurance costs skyrocketing, test scores dropping, universities ending merit based admission...AND MOST APPROPRIATE, THE END OF REPUBLICAN POWER.

Long term = The death of the Republic

Well, let's look at history as a guide.  In 1986 Congress granted amnesty to 3 million illegal aliens and swore that from then on out there would be strict enforcement of immigration laws and the U.S would never let itself be overrun with illegal aliens again.

Twenty years later Congress and Bush are planning on granting another amnesty, this time to 12-18 million illegal aliens and swearing that from here on out there will be strict enforcement of immigration laws and the U.S. will never let itself be overrun with illegal aliens again.  

Thus, I predict that in 2026 Congress will be granting amnesty to 48-108 million illegal alines and swearing that from there on out there will be strict enforcement of immigration laws and the U.S. will never let itself be overrun with illegal aliens again.

By 2046 the Congress of the United States of Mexico will be debating amnesty for "aliens" of European descent who have been living in what was formerly the United States of America for hundreds of years.  We can only hope that this congress will be equally corrupt and blinded by self-interst.