<i>&gt; US citizens pay taxes. They choose to distribute that money among themselves. That is the purpose of the US government: to protect and serve the interests of US citizens.</i><p>Non-citizens pay taxes too. Residents&#x2F;green-card holders&#x2F;visa-holders pay full income taxes without getting full benefits. Everyone pays state sales tax if there is one.<p><i>&gt; If you feel that this is morally wrong, then I don&#x27;t see how you can&#x27;t argue that every single aspect of any government is morally wrong. The fact that I live in the US and not Syria is unfair, but it&#x27;s not morally wrong.</i><p>Your argument is &quot;the US government: to protect and serve the interests of US citizens.&quot;, so I don&#x27;t see how you can think there exists ANYTHING that the US government does for its citizens at the expense of its non-citizens that <i>isn&#x27;t</i> morally wrong. Since the reason corporations exist is to benefit shareholders does that automatically make all their actions ethical as long as they increase share value? Obviously not. Thus, I think we can conclude that its possible for the US government to do things that help its citizens which are morally wrong.<p><i>&gt; Do you have a job? Are there stipulations on how you can spend your money? Because you are arguing that paying people without such stipulation is morally questionable.</i><p>Uhm, the difference is my employer and myself mutually agreed to the transaction. That is obviously why he can&#x27;t stipulate what I can do with my money, whereas with taxes, which are taken from me, and which I by your own argument a few sentences above explained have some control of through our votes as US citizens, we do have a say in. Let me use your own logic here: &quot;plenty of US services have stipulations on them, such as voting which you can&#x27;t be a felon for, for example. THUS we should be able to have stipulations on these new services&quot;.<p><i>&gt; If these immigrants are benefiting the economy, then surely they are worth the basic income we&#x27;d be paying them for that benefit.</i><p>Sure, but that doesn&#x27;t mean they&#x27;ll actually make it in. We already turn away lots of people that would be incredibly beneficial to our economy. I am arguing that a policy such as this would <i>further</i> these bad policies. However, if you believe that the government always makes the right choices, rather than our immigration policies being a mess of special interests and constituencies, then I suppose we are at a fundamental impasse.