Mr. Buchanan's Speech

Immigration Reading Response

The problems arisen from the overwhelming immigration brought forth by Mr. Buchanan are significant and cannot be overlooked. Together, the problems and the solution he provides seem persuasive enough to convince citizens to support restrictions on future immigration. However, Mr. Buchanan fails to acknowledge the positive impact of these new citizens. This creates a fatal flaw in his argument which can be easily disproved with statistics and facts. Had he addressed the rebuttals of immigration, it would have made the argument more compelling. For instance, a survey conducted by Stephen Moore and his colleague at Cato Institute and the National Immigration Forum on the top economists show that 80% think immigration had a very favorable impact on 20th century economic growth. Furthermore, 76% believe that recent immigrants have about the same economic impact compared to those of the past and 63% think that an increase in the immigration level will have a favorable impact on the U.S. standard of living. If Mr. Buchanan incorporated these facts into his speech there would be less resistance from those against his proposal. Based on his information he creates a fallacy that immigrants are hurting the nation. Although most citizens may want to decrease the amount of people entering the United States, it does not mean that the country does not benefit from them. His information is misleading. He needs to anticipate any ideas that people may have and be able to refute them, but because he fails to do so, it weakens his speech and all he has is a one sided argument.

Bibliography

"Immigration: The Demographic and Economic Facts." Cato Institute and the National Immigration Forum. 2005. .

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