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June 2024 Newsletter
Issue #88
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American Attitudes
Currently 54% of Americans say that they believe it’s at least somewhat true that the U.S. is experiencing an "invasion" at the southern border.
(76% of Republicans and 40% of Democrats)
55% of U.S. adults consider large numbers of immigrants entering the United States illegally to be a “critical threat” to U.S. vital interests. This marks an 8% increase from 2023 and surpasses the previous high of 50% in 2004.
Here are some facts:
Population
The U.S. is home to more immigrants than any other country -- more than 45 million people. That’s 13.6% of the population -- about the same as it was a
century ago.
Education
Immigrants are just as likely as the U.S. born to have a bachelor’s degree or more (32% and 33%, respectively).
Work Force
22% of all S.T.E.M. (Science, Technology, Engineering & Math) workers in the United States are foreign-born. This equates to 2.7 million immigrants -- a 29.7% increase from 2016.
It is estimated that 29% of physicians, 38% of home health aides, and 23% of retail-store pharmacists are foreign-born. Together, foreign-born employees make up 17% of the entire health care and social
services industry.
Immigrants make up 15.2% of all nurses nationally. In 5 states, more than 25% nurses are immigrants: California (36.1%); Nevada (32.2%); New Jersey (29.7%); Florida (27%); and New York (26.5%).
Economics
More immigrants creates more economic growth. And because it creates more economic growth locally, it raises the wages of the people who are already there. Since 1965, migration of foreign nationals to the U.S. has contributed to an additional 5% growth in wages.
Almost 50% of recent arriving immigrants are college graduates. As a result, the fiscal benefit over a 75 year period is an average of $259,000.
Deporting the approximately 8 million unauthorized workers in the United States would not automatically create 8 million job openings for unemployed Americans for 2 reasons. First, removing millions of undocumented workers from the economy would also remove millions of entrepreneurs, consumers and taxpayers. The economy would actually lose jobs. Second, native-born workers and immigrant workers tend to possess different skills that often complement one another.
Legislative Representation
If unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. were removed from the 2020 census apportionment count – 3 states would each lose a Congressional seat. California, Florida and Texas would each end up with one less congressional seat than they would have.
Health Care
Due to the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act of 1996, undocumented immigrants are barred from access to most federal benefits, including federal health care programs and assistance, including Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).
The federal government spends about 0.2% of Medicaid expenditures on emergency and lifesaving services and 0.03% of the total national health expenditures for undocumented immigrants.
27% of undocumented immigrants and 8% of lawfully present immigrants say they avoided applying for food, housing, or health care assistance in the past year due to immigration-related fears.
Taxes
Immigrants in the United States have a combined household income of $2.1 trillion and contribute $382.9 billion to federal taxes and $196.3 billion in state and local taxes, leaving them with $1.6 trillion in spending power.
Undocumented immigrants make significant contributions to the U.S. tax system by paying sales, income, and property taxes. In 2021, these households contributed $30.8 billion in total taxes, including $18.6 billion in federal income taxes and $12.2 billion in state and local taxes
Social Security
Undocumented immigrants contribute over $13 billion into Social Security and $3 billion to Medicare each year -- funds that they will never be able to collect.
Legal System
Immigrants are 60% less likely to be incarcerated than people born in the United States.
English
Current U.S. immigrants are making the transition to speaking English much more quickly than past immigrants. Historically, this transition took 3 generations. Today however, more 1st and 2nd generation Americans are becoming fluent in English. 67% of the 6.5 million U.S. children ages 5 to 17 who speak Spanish in their homes also speak English “very well,” while 86% speak English either "well" or “very well.”
Nobel Prizes
Since 2000, immigrants have been awarded 38%, (40 of 104) of the Nobel Prizes won by Americans in chemistry, medicine and physics. Between 1901 and 2021, immigrants to America have been awarded 35%, of these Nobel Prizes (109 of 311).
Patents
For every 10,000 extra immigrants arriving in a given US county, the number of patents filed per capita in that county increases 25%.
Military Service
Currently there are about 700,000 foreign born veterans living in the U.S. and about 45,000 actively serving. About 5,000 legal permanent residents enlist each year and more than 148,000 immigrants have served and earned citizenship through the military in the last 20 years. Over the past century, military service has provided a pathway to American citizenship for more than 760,000 immigrant service members.
Immigrants serving in the military bring special skills, including language and cultural competencies; are less likely than their U.S.-born counterparts to leave the military before completing a tour of duty. Immigrants have also historically served with distinction—20% of all Medal of Honor recipients were born abroad.
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Immigration Impact
A project of the American Immigration Council, looks at different aspects of immigration such as:
- Business and the Workforce
- Changing Culture
- Due Process of the Courts
- Economics of Immigration
- Enforcement
- Humanitarian Issues
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Understanding Our History of Patriarchy: What's Faith Got to Do with It?
A short animation to help girls grow up feeling safe and equally valued. Provides an orientation to the history of patriarchy and its intersection with faith. Offers a way re-see, re-learn, and re-know a world that is free from humanity’s oldest oppression.
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Polished Man
An organization that encourages people to actively take a stand, to spark important and powerful conversations, and raise awareness and funds to end violence against women and children. The funds they raise support trauma prevention and recovery programs around the world that aim to stop violence before it can occur, as well as helping survivors on their road to recovery. Contributions support programs to break the cycle of violence through prevention over multiple generations and support survivors of violence to recover and shape their own futures. Learn more.
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Housing the Nation:
Social Equity, Architecture, and the Future of Affordable Housing
Edited by Alexander Gorlin and Victoria Newhouse. A collection of essays by economists, scholars, architects, planners, and community organizers to address diverse aspects of homelessness. Discusses the history and extent of the US housing crisis; permanent affordable housing and affordable housing as a component of market-rate residential buildings; the development of community associations that can build and manage local units; links between housing production and climate change; and the pervasive and long-term consequences of racial discrimination in the housing market. Highlights buildings by Studio Gang, Koning Eizenberg Architecture, and others illustrate affordable housing at its best, offering a glimpse of possible solutions.
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Civilize It Initiative:
A Reflection on "A Better Kind of Politics"
An effort by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) to deal with the polarization in the church and the nation. Resources include: a promotion packet Civilize It: A Better Kind of Politics, a recording Civilize It: Our Catholic Response in a Polarized World, a recording Civilize It: Unifying a Divided Church, 5 Tips from Pope Francis for "a Better Kind of Politics", a reflection on Loving our Neighbor through Dialogue, an article Skills for Dialogue, a pledge for Charity, Clarity and Creativity, and a Prayer for Civility. Learn more.
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When God Became White: Dismantling Whiteness for a More Just Christianity
By Grace Ji-Sun Kim. Explores the historical origins and theological implications of how Jesus became white and God became a white male. Examines the roots of this distortion and its harmful colonialist impact on the world. Shows what it looks like to recover the biblical reality of a nonwhite, nongendered God and rediscovering God as Spirit leads us to a more just faith and a better church and world. Read more.
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Slavery and the Catholic Church
in the United States: Historical Studies
Edited by David J. Endres. A collection of nine essays divided into three sections: enslaved persons and slaveholders, debating abolition and emancipation, and historians and historiography. The studies, many of which are informed by recent archival discoveries, offer a model for historians seeking to understand the relationship between slavery and the Church, not only topically but in terms of methods, contexts, and resources, contributing to a broader appreciation of religion's role in race-based slavery. Each chapter also offers a ray of hope, suggesting how we might acknowledge and respond to this difficult history. Read more.
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Sustainable Economies Law Center
A nonprofit organization that cultivates a legal landscape that supports community resilience and grassroots economic empowerment. Provides essential legal tools - education, research, advice, and advocacy - so communities can develop their own sustainable sources of food, housing, energy, jobs, and other vital aspects of a thriving community. Their programs work together in identifying key leverage points in existing economic and legal systems, removing strategic legal barriers, and creating replicable models for community resilience.
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The Quiet Coup:
Neoliberalism and the Looting of America
By Mehrsa Baradaran. Argues that the nation's economic system is rigged toward the powerful. Over the course of decades, this feat was accomplished by hundreds of (mostly) law-abiding lawyers, judges, regulators, policy makers, and lobbyists -- adherents of a market-centered doctrine called neoliberalism.
They did this by changing the law in unseen ways.
Tracing this largely unknown history from the late 1960s to the present, demonstrates that far from yielding fewer laws and regulations, neoliberalism has in fact always meant more―and more complex―laws, which uniformly benefit the wealthy. Narrates the key moments in the slow-moving coup that was, and is, neoliberalism. Shifting the focus away from presidents and national policy, tells the story of how this nation’s laws came to favor the few against the many, threatening the integrity of the market and the state.
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Faith & Money Network
A teaching ministry with the goal of equipping people to transform their relationship with money, to live with integrity and intentionality, and to participate in creating a more equitable world. Offers resources such as:
- "The Money Autobiography" -- a tool to help understand our behaviors and feelings evoked by money
- Online Study Groups
- Money Mentoring
- Trips of Perspective
- Workshops
- Preaching and Teaching
- The Faith and Money Podcast
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A certified B Corporation that envisions a world without fossil-fuel derived plastic. Works to raise awareness on the health and environmental problems posed by plastics, while making the solutions more accessible, and empowering people to be part of the change. Helps people:
- Find safe, high quality, ethically sourced, Earth-friendly alternatives to plastic products through their online shop
- Make educated life and purchasing decisions by providing them with information and resources on the health and environmental issues associated with plastics
- Find ways to take action to decrease plastic use and create tangible change at all levels - personal, local, regional, national, global...
- Find the balance and embrace the fun in the exciting challenge of living with less plastic
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The Environment Excuse
A resource from Wild Aid, a nonprofit organization that protects wildlife from climate change, illegal trade and other imminent threats. Offers a 12 question quiz to determine one's "carbon footprint" and provides specific ideas to reduce it by 25% in 4 areas: food, home, shopping and transportation. Learn more.
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Be Courageous!
A Call to Speak Up for What You Believe
A TED Talk, featuring journalist and editor Bari Weiss, who looks at some of the major issues that are widening the political divide in the US, and holds that courage is the most important virtue in today's polarized world. She shares examples of people who have spoken up in the face of conformity and silence — and calls on all of us to say what we believe. Watch now.
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Why the World Needs More Builders —
And Less "Us vs. Them"
A TED Talk, featuring Daniel Lubetzky, the founder of KIND Snacks, who talks about how we're programmed to think every issue is binary: "us vs. them." But he says the real enemy isn't a person but a mindset. He introduces a new initiative that aims to bring together "builders" from around the world to replace extremism with practical problem-solving — and shows how you can join the movement.
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A Brief History of the Future:
What Comes Next is Up to Us
A 6-part documentary series from PBS about our future and how we can reimagine it. Invites viewers on a journey around the world filled with discovery, hope, and possibility about where we find ourselves today and what could come next. It challenges dystopian ideas by offering a refreshing take on the future and asks us all: how can we become the great ancestors the future needs us to be? Weaving together history, science, and unexpected ideas - the series expands our understanding of the impact the choices we make today will have on our tomorrows and highlights those working to solve our greatest challenges. Learn more.
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The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.
Leviticus 19:34
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Important Dates This Month |
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Individuals Honored This Month |
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June 1st
In my empty cell, I experience a growing awareness of the communion of saints -- and of the possibility of a world where the vast chasm of violence and injustice enforced by torture and war is bridged and transformed.
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June 4th
The media seems to think only abortion and gay marriage are religious issues. Poverty is a moral issue, it's a faith issue, it's a religious issue.
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June 8th
If there is no friendship with the poor and no sharing of the life of the poor, then there is no authentic commitment to liberation, because love exists only among equals.
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June 12th
Human greatness does not lie in wealth or power, but in character and goodness.
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June 28th
Even today we don't pay serious attention to the issue of poverty, because the powerful remain relatively untouched by it. Most people distance themselves from the issue by saying that if the poor worked harder, they wouldn't be poor.
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June 30th
Dorothy was killed in El Salvador in 1980 with 3 companions by members of the military for her work with the poor.
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