The chaos unfolding at the border demonstrates the
catastrophic, real-world consequences of the president’s lawless conduct.
For
the last five years, with average household incomes falling, and Americans
being pushed out of the workforce, the president has been engaged in a
sustained campaign to strip away Americans’ immigration protections.
He has
accomplished his aims: Interior removals have been cut by more than 40 percent.
President Obama’s own former ICE director reported to the Los Angeles Times
that “if you are a run-of-the-mill immigrant here illegally, your odds of
getting deported are close to zero.”
There
is no doubt that the president’s lawlessness has now produced a humanitarian crisis.
But — and much too little discussed — is the crisis he has produced for the
American citizens and communities who are left with the tab. Washington has
profoundly failed in its lawful duty to the American people.
We owe
our first obligation to the citizens of this country, and yet the last year has
been consumed by an immigration debate centered on the needs of immigration
lobbyists and politicians. The ultimate expression of this failure of
priorities was the Senate’s immigration bill. During a time of low wages, high
unemployment, and surging welfare rolls, the Senate bill doubled the existing
and expansive rate of legal immigrant and guest-worker admissions into the U.S.
The
U.S. already has the world’s most generous immigration policy.
The size of the
country’s foreign-born population has quadrupled since 1970. Harvard professor
George Borjas estimated that high immigration rates from 1980 to 2000 resulted
in a 7.4 percent wage reduction for lower-skilled American workers.
And from
the years 2000 through 2013, according to a Congressional Research Service
report, the U.S. lawfully issued another 26 million visas to foreign
workers and new permanent immigrants.
The Center for Immigration Studies issued
a study based on Census data showing that “since 2000 all of the net gain in
the number of working-age (16 to 65) people holding a job has gone to
immigrants.”
Meanwhile,
further demonstrating that there is a large surplus of labor, incomes and wages
are down.
The Wall Street Journal reports that “median household income
was $50,017 in 2012, below 2007’s peak level of $55,627, after adjusting for
inflation, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.” At the same time, the number
of Americans who are not working between the ages of 16 and 65 has grown to 58 million.
If mass immigration is so good for the economy, why then — during this long
sustained period of record immigration into the U.S. — are incomes falling and
a record number of Americans not working?
On this
July Fourth, it is time to focus squarely on the needs of the American people
who have given their blood and sweat to deliver us this magnificent Republic
.
For
instance:
Stop promoting amnesty.
Instead, send a clear message to the world: If you attempt to come here
unlawfully, you will be sent home. And send a message to our neighbors in Latin
America: If you do not accept repatriation of your citizens who entered
unlawfully, you will not be provided any more legal-immigrant visas.
Protect the workplace.
Protect the jobs and wages of lawful residents. This can be done by expanding,
as previously planned, the effective and easy-to-use workplace verification
tool known as E-Verify, used to confirm a job applicants’ legal status. Senate
Democrats have blocked this measure.
Remove the tax credit
magnet. According to the IRS inspector general, in 2010 the U.S. improperly
paid out $4.2 billion taxpayer dollars to illegal immigrants in the form of the
additional child tax credits — often to support children who are not even
living in the United States. We can end this practice by simply requiring a
valid Social Security number as the IRS inspector general has recommended.
Senate Democrats have blocked this measure, too.
Help our unemployed get
back to work. With a record 58 million working-age Americans not working, we
need to get our people off unemployment, off welfare, and into good-paying jobs
that can support a family. Doubling the already-large and continuing flow of
legal immigration, as the Senate bill proposed, clearly works against this
goal.
Create the conditions for
rising wages. It is the job of lawmakers to represent all citizens, not just
the denizens of Wall Street and Silicon Valley, and certainly not the narrow
financial interests of international corporations with facilities spread across
the globe. As long as we provide employers with an ever-increasing supply of
low-wage workers from abroad, American wages are not going to rise. If a job is
tough, or difficult, or in high demand, why shouldn’t wages go up?
Challenge the president’s
lawlessness. The president made clear with his Monday announcement on executive
actions that he plans to go even further in not enforcing America’s immigration
laws. Congress simply has no choice but to use its substantial constitutional
powers to confront the president’s lawlessness. And if the Senate Democratic
majority continues to empower this illegality, then they should be exposed
publicly and held to account for doing so. To violate even further his
constitutional requirement to enforce the law – regardless of what other
measures are taken – will ensure that the border crisis continues.
The
immigration vision of President Obama and his congressional allies provides
benefits for various CEOs, amnesty activists, and for the citizens of other
countries — but it offers nothing for American citizens besides lower wages and
higher unemployment.
After
decades of open immigration and lawless borders, it has become clear that it is
time for a new immigration focus: one centered on the just and legitimate
interests of the American people.
The
Americans who bravely fight our wars, dutifully pay their taxes, and live their
whole lives by the rules have every right to expect and demand that their
representatives act faithfully on their behalf. Let that be our resolve on this
July Fourth.
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