​The mad trolling geniuses at 4chan again found their way under the skin of leftists everywhere, after circulating a phony Starbucks ad (see below) which promised discounts and free products to undocumented residents on August 11th. Their mischievous plan was meant to culminate with calls to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, who would swoop into local Starbucks establishments, handing out one-way departure tickets from the United States.

Despite the obvious hiccups in this plan (like the small matter of convincing ICE to be on stand-by at Starbucks locations nationwide), progressive publications were quick to jump on the story.

Esther Yu Hsi Lee, from Think Progress, seemed particularly aggrieved by the meme, calling it “appalling,” “unsettling,” and “insulting.” It seems the ad struck her as particularly disparaging because it perpetuated the idea that illegal immigrants are “takers and not makers.” Ms. Lee makes her case by reminding us all that the country’s "11 million undocumented population contributes an estimated $11.74 billion in state and local taxes.”

For starters, the illegal population in the U.S. is closer to 11.3 million, according to Pew Research Data from 2016. Additionally, it would appear that the author has expected us to take her state and tax numbers at face value and move on. Where’s the fun in that though? A quick break down shows, provided her dollar value is correct, that the average illegal contributes approximately $1,039 a year in state and local taxes. The average income in the U.S. Is $51,000 per year. With a mean state and local tax rate of approximately 9.9%, the average American pays roughly $5,049 per year. Yikes… so it turns out citizens, on average, contribute to the local tax pool at almost five times the rate of illegal aliens.

Her argument goes full bologna when we start taking into account the social tax dollars illegals draw from the system. Now, I know what you’re thinking. Are illegal immigrants even eligible to receive government welfare and assistance? Technically, no. But undocumented parents with children born in the U.S. have a direct line to claiming benefits for their households. In fact, according to The Heritage Foundation, the combined annual deficit of illegal, non-citizen households is roughly $54.5 billion dollars a year. That’s more than the annual GDP of 119 countries.

A portion of this deficit is caused by our education system. Thanks to hideous governmental inefficiency, the national, average cost of putting a single pupil through one year of public education costs approximately $12,300.

Ms. Lee also outright lies when she says, “The myth works exceedingly well because undocumented immigrants are already viewed as ‘criminals’ despite violating civil and not criminal offenses when they enter the country illegally.” While it’s true that those with expired visas are committing civil offenses, the law clearly states that improper entry into the country is a federal crime, punishable by up to six months incarceration. Are we expected to believe that the majority of those here illegally just accidentally let their visas lapse?

Alessandra Maldonado at Salon was little better in her assessment. In the very first line of her article, she blamed the faux Starbucks ad on the “Trump Administration’s xenophobic rhetoric,” because you know, Trump is bad ... and Russians and stuff.

Ms. Maldonado finished particularly strong with this virulent anti-American sentiment:

America may indeed be losing ground in technical and scientific innovation, but we remain out in front when it comes to creating new ways to treat other people like garbage.

Last I checked, it was leftists who owned the market on treating others like garbage. Apparently, they also own the market on freaking out over inconsequential memes created by internet trolls.