Racism Matters

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Personal finance site MINT.com published an infographic article by Ross Crooks about “The economic impact of immigration in the US”. The site immediately came under fire for citing unreliable sources, including openly racist anti-immigration site VDare.com.

Writer Timothy Lee highlighted some of the implausible statistics for The Atlantic:

• 43% of all Food Stamps issued in the United States are to illegal aliens.
• 41% of all unemployment checks issued in the United States are to illegal aliens.
• Undocumented immigrants cost Arizona taxpayers $2.7 billion

Lee points out that federal law prevents undocumented immigrants from collecting unemployment benefits, and statistics that illegal immigrants constitute less than 10% of the country’s population.

Ezra Klein of the Washington Post added some notes about the ignored economic benefits of immigration in general.

Lee Sherman, editor of MintLife, later issued an apology statement that can be found at the bottom of these articles:

The Atlantic
Gawker
Washington Post