Apr 24, 2018 12:00:00 AM
Undocumented immigrants pay $11.6 billion in local and state taxes each year. Immigrants live an average of 3.4 years longer than native-born Americans, are less likely to develop obesity, alcoholism and depression, and are less likely to die from cardiovascular diseases or cancer. Young immigrant men (ages 18 to 39) are sent to jail at roughly half the rate of native-born men of the same age. And immigrant communities experience significantly less crime than predominantly native-born neighborhoods.Look, if we should be afraid of anything, it’s that the fury of our current politics will somehow mess immigrant families up. What if our intolerance inadvertently creates the detached immigrant cultures some Americans fear? Today’s children of immigrants see White supremacists feted by our political leaders. They hear people of their ethnicities denigrated by those same people. They watch their communities being targeted by armed members of the state. I shudder to imagine the lessons they’re learning from the daily brutality of American public life in 2018. Would they be wrong to become embittered? Can we credibly feign surprise if they give up on bedrock American institutions?
Conor P. Williams is a fellow at The Century Foundation. Williams was previously the founding director of the New America’s Dual Language Learners National Work Group and a senior researcher in New America's Education Policy Program. He began his career as a first grade teacher in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Dr. Williams holds a Ph.D in government from Georgetown University, a M.S. in teaching from Pace University, and a B.A. from Bowdoin College. Most importantly, he's a dad.
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