IMMIGRATION COST DEPENDS ON WILL TO WORK

A study suggests that immigrants to this country contributed $133 billion in federal, state and local taxes last year, far more than the cost of various government programs that assist aliens who aren't yet U.S. citizens -- and perhaps never intend to be.

The study, by the Cato Institute in Washington, D.C., was immediately challenged by organizations that want to curb the inflow of immigrants, because the newcomers are seen as a drain on the social services provided at various levels of government, even if they don't have an overall negative economic impact.

The Cato Institute's study concluded that the nation's 25 million immigrants, both legal and illegal, have a net positive effect.

There is a significant philosophical matter that the Cato study didn't consider regarding this nation of immigrants, a nation founded by newcomers from foreign lands who sought many facets of freedom: Some wanted freedom of religion. Others wanted freedom from onerous laws. Still others wanted freedom to work for whom they chose instead of being indentured to others, although indentured labor was a vital part of the economic fabric in colonial America. And some wanted freedom from past indiscretions, which meant they fled to the raw shores of this continent to avoid the legal penalties of crimes committed in their homeland.

For some three centuries, this continent proved to be a haven for just about anyone who wanted to get away from oppression and government strictures that made life all but unbearable. What they brought with them, for the most part, was a zeal to make of themselves whatever they wanted to be. This will to turn their own labors into economic rewards was easy to cultivate in a developing society where free enterprise was becoming more and more entrenched.

Today, there are still thousands of immigrants who come to the United States with this same zeal. They intend to make better lives for themselves and their children. And they succeed. These immigrants, without question, contribute mightily to our economy in ways that must be regarded as beneficial.

Yet a curious thing has happened in recent years. The notion that government owes something to anyone who needs help, even those whose ambition is limited to cashing government checks and spending government food stamps, has taken away the incentive for individual enterprise in far too many cases. It is this fundamental change in philosophy that has caused so many to decry both the number of immigrants and their burgeoning cost to taxpayers.

Just imagine what the Cato Institute would have learned if it had been able to study 25 million immigrants whose focus was on a brighter future through hard work.