Alexander Tabarrok asks, Why Ruin the World’s Best Anti-Poverty Program?:
Immigration benefits not only the immigrants but also their families back home because of the billions of dollars of their own money that immigrants send to their families. Remittances to Mexico in 2004, for example, amounted to 16.6 billion dollars — to put this in perspective that’s about the same as all direct foreign investment in Mexico. Remittances far exceed foreign aid and remittances go directly to poor people and not to corrupt governments and dictators. Why ruin the world’s best anti-poverty program?