The Truth about Immigration is Probably Offensive to All

After Donald Trump's tirade on immigration where he said that he did not want people coming into the United State from "shit-hole" countries is offensive even if you take out the profanity.  The only thing that I can say in Trump's defense is that the countries he spoke of are not exactly the garden spot of the world.

If you go back to the 1600s and 1700s, England, Scotland and Wales were the, as Donald Trump says, the 'shit hole' countries of the world.  That is why people left to come to North American.  When the immigrants arrived in the New World, they brought with them diseases like plague, small pox and many others, killing much of the population that was here without even loading a musket.

However, there is a reason people wanted to come here there, and there is a reason people want to come here now.

Donald Trump is a sorry excuse of a man, but that is not what I wish to talk about at this time.  It is about immigration.  And hold you pants on, because I am about to say something very offensive.

The United States does not have an immigration problem.

At least it is nothing like the Native Tribes had to deal with in the 1600s and 1700s.  That was an uncontrollable immigration problem.

What we have today is a perception problem.  We make it worse than it really is. 

According to Census estimates, about 13% of the total population of the country is foreign born.  This is the highest it has been in the past 100 years.  In 1910, about 15% were foreign born.  Toady, nearly 1/4 of our foreign-born residents are from Mexico.  Less than 1% are from the countries that Donald Trump mentioned as "shit hole" countries. 

Studies show that immigrants are beneficial to our country, don't increase crime and don't add to the welfare burden.  The only real problem is that the federal government decides who gets to come into the country.  But the burden for educating them, and the burden if they need welfare, falls upon the states.  As immigration has gone from about 4% in the 1970 to 13% today, the states are feeling an increased burden.  The US states also get no compensation from the government for the immigrants that live in any particular state.

The problem is like working at the complaint desk at your local Mercedes Benz dealer.  All you hear about, if you work at the complaint desk, are the problems, and you probably think that the Mercedes is the worst car in the world.  Often, this is what we get from the media.  It's our complaint desk.  "If it bleeds, it leads."

That being said, if you loose 100,000 of your citizens to a neighboring country, something is wrong.  But it's not here.  This is the place where people are coming to.  If the US is such a terrible place, why do they come?

Swagger's 18 Predictions for 2018

18.  Big Sky Conference adds Dixie State College of Utah as 12th school.  (14th for Football)  DSU will transition from DII to FCS in 2019-2020 and officially join in 2021-22.

17.  Las Vegas is awarded Super Bowl LVII

16.  PAC-12 will change conference football schedule to play 8 conference games instead of 9 leaving each school to add an extra non-conference game for 2019 going forward.  Oregon adds BYU for a 2020-2021 home and home.  Utah and Utah State will play annually again.

15.  No teams from Utah make the men's NCAA basketball championship field in 2018.  BYU and Utah play in NIT.  Weber State plays in Vegas 16.

14.  Alabama wins 2017 college national championship.

13.  Royals make NWSL playoffs in first season, but lose to Portland Thorns.

12.  BYU beats Nevada in New Mexico Bowl, finishes 10-3, earns first top 25 ranking since 2011.  (Losses to Wisconsin, Washington and Northern Illinois.)

11.  Utah State beats Toledo in the Idaho Famous Potato Bowl, finishes 8-5.  (Losses to Michigan State, BYU, Boise State, Colorado State and Wyoming)

10.  Utah beats Fresno State in the Las Vegas Bowl, finishes 8-5.  (Losses to Washington, Washington State, Stanford, UCLA and BYU)

9.  Rio Tinto Stadium is awarded the 2021 Women's College Cup

8.  Weber State loses to North Dakota State in the 2018 NCAA FCS Championship game finishes 13-2.  (Losses to Utah and North Dakota State)

7.  Washington, Ohio State, Alabama and Miami (Florida) are the 2018 football semi-finalists.  NCAA announces expansion playoffs to 16 teams beginning in 2022.

6.  Celtics win NBA championship.  Gordon Hayward does not return during the season.

5.  Jazz miss NBA playoffs. Draft Miles Bridges, SF Michigan State.

4.  Michigan State wins NCAA men's basketball championship.

3.  Tony Finau wins US Open.

2.  RSL makes MLS playoffs, but loses to Seattle in conference finals.  RSL finishes season unbeaten at home.

1.  BYU finally beats Utah in football.