Solving one problem, may lead to more problems

Kudos to President Trump for reducing illegal immigration! Migrant encounters at our Southern border have dropped from over 100,000 per month to less than 10,000. The ironic problem for America is that Trump’s “success” has left us with too few immigrants!

Yeah, that last sentence is counter-intuitive.

So, here’s an easily understood example of how drastically reducing the number of immigrants will hurt us. All migrants, both legal and illegal pay into Social Security. They can collect money from Social Security ONLY if they achieve citizenship. And that rarely happens. So, SS is getting a boost of at least $30 billion each year from the immigrant population.

Also, immigrants contribute nearly $600 billion in taxes each year. But they don’t get as many benefits. Legal immigrants can tap into Medicaid but illegal immigrants can only get emergency services. The medical costs for both legal and illegal immigrants? Less than $50 billion. So, the net gain is $550 billion. A drastic reduction in immigration would actually reduce our revenues.

Another problem with discouraging immigrants has to do with science and technology. Very intelligent immigrants have come to America since our higher education is the best in the world. And there are ample research grants for important scientific projects.

Well, Trump put an end to that. With a wanton disregard for law and morality, Trump has taken away visas or threatened to take away visas for many legal immigrants some of whom attend colleges here.

He also is meddling in our universities and telling them how to teach their students.

To add injury to insult, he has taken billions from research.

Now intelligent immigrants who could have helped our country will get their education in other countries where they will be more welcomed. Where education is still run by free thinking teachers. Where smaller BUT RELIABLE research grants help cure diseases, track and deal with climate change and explore the quantum realm where new discoveries give us AI superiority and countless inventions like cell phones. Trump and his draconian policies have negatively impacted this flow of specialized help. Our 80-year leadership in science and technology is coming to an end.

Hotels, restaurants and farms rely on another group of immigrants who are willing to work far harder and more carefully than most home-grown Americans. Right now, many of these responsible immigrants are being yanked out of their homes and work places to be sent back to their country or to prisons in other countries. Those who were not scooped up in these Gestapo-like raids are understandably frightened and wary of the new America. Some will go to safer and more tolerant countries.

The consequences of reducing this immigrant population? Higher prices for hotels, restaurants and groceries. Oh, and a decline in services.

So, yes, Trump did solve the immigration problem. Unfortunately, his “solution” has created serious different, possibly more important problems for America.