One Sure Prediction: Mass-Immigration Special Interests will be Dependably Wrong
Hyperbole, unsubstantiated claims, and outright whoppers are standard operating procedure for mass immigration advocates, particularly when they fight common-sense legislation put forth by responsible public officials trying to protect their communities. Case in point: The left’s ominous warnings when Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed Senate Bill (SB) 1718 in May of 2023. The bill not only expanded E-Verify – thus protecting American workers – but made multiple statutory changes for the purpose of deterring illegal immigration and mitigating the adverse effects of Biden’s Border Crisis on the Sunshine State.
One particular Los Angeles Times piece written by the far-left Center for American Progress just days after DeSantis inked the bill, typified the doom and gloom forecasting of open-border advocates: “Florida’s new anti-immigrant law could be disastrous for the economy.”
Making wild predictions is nothing new, however. Mass-immigration zealots have simply joined a long pantheon of prognosticators proven wrong:
- “The horse is here to stay but the automobile is only a novelty—a fad.” The president of the Michigan Savings Bank advising Henry Ford’s lawyer not to invest in the Ford Motor Co., 1903.
- “Television won’t last because people will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night.” Darryl Zanuck movie producer, 20th Century Fox, 1946.
- “There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home.” Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), in a talk given to a 1977 World Future Society.
- “And for the tourist who really wants to get away from it all, safaris in Vietnam,” -Newsweek, predicting popular holidays for the late 1960s.
- Or, our favorite from Senate immigration subcommittee chairman Edward Kennedy (D-MA) reassuring everyone that the passage of the 1965 Hart-Celler Immigration Bill was going to be no big deal: “First, our cities will not be flooded with a million immigrants annually. Under the proposed bill, the present level of immigration remains substantially the same.”
Fact check: Horses are out, autos are in; more TV sets exist than people per U.S. households, while 92 percent of those households have one or more computers. That safari suggestion? Ask any veteran about the advisability of vacationing in Vietnam in the 60s. As for the late Senator Kennedy’s prediction — whether just blissfully wrong or deliberatively deceptive — even he might be chagrined to learn that 16.8 million illegal aliens now reside in the U.S., or that monthly encounters at the border recently reached 371,046 in December.
Equally preposterous was the warning that Florida’s economy would crash.
Florida’s economic growth continues and bucks national trends. It has the lowest unemployment rate of any large state. At 3 percent in December, it remains below the 3.7 percent national average. The state created jobs every month last year and created jobs at a faster rate than the nation as a whole. All 10 of Florida’s largest sectors added jobs in 2023.
And as Business Insider reports, “The Sunshine State’s economy is projected by Wells Fargo to expand in 2024, propelled by a robust job market. While Wells Fargo economists say they expect some “cooling” in the state’s labor market, they say the unemployment rate will remain relatively low thanks to a continued surge of working-age residents. GDP growth surpassed the national average for 10 consecutive quarters, and the third largest payroll increase of the year was recorded in October.”
Even though the state has low taxes, it has managed to retain a $16 billion budget surplus while its responsible fiscal administration has earned it a AAA credit rating from all major credit rating agencies, and now exceeds the U.S. Government’s credit rating.
Despite the Center for American Progress’ prediction that Florida’s economy would crash, the state’s economy is thriving. And with new legislation in place to deter costly illegal immigration, Florida is well poised for even greater gains.
Sure, hindsight is 20/20 and anyone subsequently proven to make inaccurate predictions deserves some reasonable slack, given most are innocently wrong rather than deviously attempting to push an agenda. In contrast, the mass immigration lobby’s wild and reckless assertions, designed by intent to stir the pot and derail responsible public policy, deserve no such slack.
Take what the immigration special interests say with a grain of salt or better yet, dismiss it entirely from the get-go. If so, history and facts will be on your side later.