Mike Scruggs
For the last 40 years, the
U.S. immigration system has favored narrow special interests seeking
cheap labor and increased political influence. It has hurt most American
workers and most taxpayers. Although our immigration policies have increased
the size of the economy, they have been a net drag on American prosperity
and most Americans. Politically, these policies have been moving the
country steadily to the left. They have also gravely damaged the Rule
of Law, without which no republic can long survive.
We certainly need immigration
reform, but the “Comprehensive Immigration Reform” recently passed
by the U.S. Senate and sent to the House is not reform. It would make
things far worse--severely damaging current and future job prospects
for American workers, driving down their wages, increasing their taxes,
running up huge fiscal deficits, and undermining national security and
public safety. It would also accelerate the left wing of American politics
to permanent overwhelming dominance.
Permanent political dominance
by the far left--now the mainstream of the Democrat Party, often assisted
by a witless minority of short-sighted jellyfish Republicans--would
mean almost every issue on the conservative agenda would be swept into
the dustbin of history with little chance of resurrection. Right-to-life,
a market driven economy, freedom of political or religious speech, and
anything supporting a Biblical Judeo-Christian worldview would all be
dead history if not political crimes. The immigration debate will determine
the outcome of almost every economic, social, and cultural issue and
will significantly influence national security, public safety, foreign
policy, and military preparedness.
There are approximately 11.5
million illegal immigrants in the United States, of which about 8 million
are employed. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) first
quarter 2013 report, there were 12.1 million unemployed American workers.
There were a total of 21 million Americans who want a full time job
but cannot find one. Another disturbing statistic is that the number
of native-born Americans in the potential workforce aged 16-65 dropped
by 12.9 million from first quarter 2000 to first quarter 2013. The total
of Americans who are either unemployed or not in the workforce is at
a record 70 million. Native-born workforce participation has dropped
dramatically since 2000, from 73.7 to 65.9 percent, the lowest in 34
years. Unemployment figures run extremely high in groups competing with
low-paid foreign labor. Compared to the overall U.S. rate of 7.6 percent,
the unemployment rate for blacks is 13.6 percent ant that of black teenagers
a whopping 42.6 percent.
Illegal immigrant workers
commit identity fraud, identity theft, or tax fraud to get and keep
their jobs. These felonies would not seem to make them good prospects
for law-abiding citizenship. However, under the proposed Schumer-Rubio
Senate amnesty, they would have to pay fines of only about $1,000 over
several years. In contrast, a U.S. citizen would spend 3-7 years in
prison and pay fines as high as $100,000 for the same conduct. Yet the
loudest voices in the media and Congress reserve their sympathy for
illegal immigrants,
Here is an iron law of economics applied to jobs and wages: A shortage
of labor drives wages up, but an oversupply of labor drives wages down.
Lower wages are exactly what importing cheap
foreign labor, both legal and illegal, has inflicted upon the forgotten
American worker. Harvard labor economist George Borjas has calculated
that the pressure on American wages from the 40 million immigrants coming
into the country since 1980 is now driving the wages of the average
American worker down by over $2,800 per year. This impacts 136 million
American workers, reducing their annual national spending power by about
$402 billion per year.
American blue-collar wages have been stagnant
since the 1970s. Construction wages, highly impacted by illegal immigrant
labor, have actually declined by 14 percent. Wage losses are occurring
among all workers, including college graduates. The wage decline impact
on professions is highly correlated with the number foreign workers.
Corporate and business association lobbyists
with a shallow and special interest biased knowledge of economics continuously
point out that legal and illegal immigrants make the U.S. economy bigger
by $1.6 trillion per year (11 percent of total GDP), as if GDP were
a measure of prosperity. This is like saying a company with $100 million
in sales is in good shape without looking at its costs and expenses.
A company that sells $100 million in widgets is not in good shape, if
its product costs and expenses run to $120 million. If Widget Inc. continues
without change, it will sell itself right out of business. This is somewhat
analogous to how U.S. immigration policy operates with $300 million
spent annually by cheap labor lobbies to influence Congress. We have
an immigration policy that is good for illegal immigrants and the businesses
that hire them and other imported labor but hurts American workers,
taxpayers, and the broad national interest.
A recent report by Borjas indicated that
national economic surplus due to immigration is only $35 billion per
year, and this relatively tiny economic gain, is overcome by fiscal
costs running over $100 billion per year for a net loss of about $65
billion, which does not include many large but hard to estimate items,
like the cost of dual-language education in schools. The internal division
of the components of this small economic benefit is that cheap-labor
users profit $437 billion per year at the expense of $402 billion to
American workers. This is not only a financial injury to American workers;
it is a moral injury to American conscience and justice.
Congress must NOT
increase injury to American workers by passing ANY
amnesty, including Boehner's deceptive and highly expandable “Children's Amnesty,” or by authorizing millions of additional
legal immigrant workers. It must secure the borders and the workplace and reduce legal immigration to a selective 500,000 per year. The
question is whether Congress will have the courage to stand up for American
workers in the face of cheap-labor lobbyists campaign finance bribery
or fury.
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