Attitudes toward immigration in the United States are often influenced by erroneous beliefs and inaccurate information, some of which this commentary will attempt to address with facts that are readily available from federal and private research websites.

The term “immigrant” refers to noncitizens who are in this country with valid visas; the term “undocumented immigrant” will be used rather than the more pejorative “illegal immigrant” because being in this country without documentation is not a criminal offense but a civil offense.

Misconception: “Undocumented immigrants take U.S. jobs.” In fact, these workers make up less than 5 percent of the U.S. workforce, and the vast majority of the work they do is in the lowest pay sectors. Many farmworkers from south of our border are brought in on temporary visas by employers who pay them well below minimum wage and provide no benefits and no legal or workplace rights (the rate of job-related death among these workers is 74 percent higher than the U.S. average). This group does take jobs that U.S. citizens could fill if it were legal to deny citizens the pay and rights that other U.S. workers have. But that isn’t the case, and the fault here lies with our immigration policy, not with legal or undocumented immigrants.

Misconception: “Immigrants are a drain on our social and welfare services.” Actually, immigrants use a disproportionately lower share of services: less than one-half of the health care services and 25 percent lower use of food stamps than our national average.

Misconception: “Immigrants don’t pay taxes.” In fact, legal immigrants pay income tax, and more than one-half of undocumented workers pay income tax as withholding from their wages even though they are ineligible to claim a refund, Social Security benefits or other welfare benefits that their taxes support.

Misconception: “Immigrants bring crime to our cities.” Actually, the National Bureau of Economic Research reports that “18- to 40-year-old male immigrants have incarceration rates that are one-fifth those of native-born U.S. males in the same age group.”

Why don’t they just stay in their own country? Here is a partial answer. In 1994, the North American Free Trade Agreement was signed by Canada, the United States and Mexico. What happened when the markets became “free”? The amount of U.S.-subsidized corn flowing into Mexico tripled in a three-year period, and the price of Mexican corn dropped 70 percent. Mexican subsistence farmers, unable to feed their families, had to abandon their land in order to look for other, nonexistent work.

In 1975, before NAFTA, average Mexican manufacturing wages were 23 percent of U.S. manufacturing wages; by 2002 that average had dropped to 12 percent. The cost of food in Mexico increased 257 percent after the trade agreement, while purchasing power decreased by 50 percent. Not surprisingly, the rate of immigration from Mexico almost doubled after NAFTA, and two-thirds of the undocumented immigrants currently in the U.S. have arrived since then. When your family is starving, you may resort to desperate measures.

The purpose of this commentary is not to suggest that we allow unlimited immigration (quotas, while in need of review, are necessary) or that we give amnesty to all undocumented immigrants. The purpose is to highlight the multifaceted nature of this issue and its solutions.

What are a few of the policy changes needed?

1. Compel farmers and agribusiness to pay reasonable wages and provide legal and work rights for the immigrants they bring here.

2. Expeditiously reunite immigrant families separated due to lengthy visa backlogs.

3. Create an avenue for certain undocumented immigrants to earn lawful residency. For instance, consider a route toward citizenship for hard-working students who were brought here as children 15 years ago (the goal of the Dream Act now pending in Congress). Or, as a conservative presidential candidate recently suggested: “If you’ve been here for 25 years, you have three kids and two grandkids, you’ve been paying taxes and obeying the law, you belong to a local church, I don’t think we’re going separate you from your family, uproot you forcefully and kick you out.”

4. Beyond legal concerns, and considering the fact that we are all immigrants, perhaps we should place some emphasis on the moral aspects of this issue. After all, it was luck, not merit, that favored each of us with native-born status.

Immigration policies should be consistent with our values of individual respect and dignity, while allowing the U.S. to implement immigration laws that prevent the entry of excessive numbers and exclude criminals.