1. They pay taxes.
2. They spend their money on goods and services supplied by American businesses.
That constitutes contribution to American society. If anything, immigrants should be actively sought.
As for remittance, I believe that people are free to spend their disposable income however they wish.
The one thing we do not have though is a way to influence the political landscape of the country as we are not allowed to vote. So ultimately with a green-card there is taxation without representation, which I myself find quite ironic as the United States was founded on the principle that it was wrong to pay taxes and not be represented...
1. They pay taxes. 2. They work.
Their spending of money on goods and services is what they take out of the system.
The only exception is where the number of immigrants present creates beneficial economies of scale. For example, without the many Indian immigrants in Jersey City, Sri Ganesh's Dosa House probably would not have sufficient business to continue operating.
Nonsense.
If I, as a red blooded "non immigrant" (what the fuck does immigrant really mean? who cares where I was born?) sell widgets, and "immigrants" love to buy lots of widgets, it is trivial to see how this is good for me.
For instance, they could send it abroad.
If they spend it on goods and services in the same economy that they earned it in then they are contributing again.
It would be nicer to supplement something like this with a system that allowed people who paid $X or employed Y people to get a green card faster.
I think we can all agree the current system is broken. I don't know what a better one is, but whatever it is needs to make room for people who can't afford a $100k entry fee, but would contribute to American society in other ways.