Thread: Illegals Land jobs, Others Pay

http://www.whittierdailynews.com/news/ci_3629894

Study: Illegals land jobs, others pay
More American-born workers are unemployed
By Lilly Rockwell Cox News Service



WASHINGTON - As Congress grapples with the question of how to design a guest-worker program for millions of illegal immigrants in the United States, a study shows that the number of illegal immigrants working is rising as more American-born workers are becoming unemployed.
Based on government labor statistics over the last five years, a report by the Center for Immigration Studies, which favors less immigration, found that employment of illegal immigrants with a high school diploma or less has grown as employment of Americans with the same credentials has dropped.

Steve Camarota, the author of the report, said illegal immigrants are gaining jobs in a competitive low-skilled labor market that Americans aren't.

"The people taking it on the chin are the people at the bottom," Camarota said.

As the number of immigrants in the U.S. work force grew by 3percent, or 1.5 million, the number of Americans who were unemployed or not in the labor force increased by 4 percent, or 2.6 million.

Industries like construction, farming and food preparation are increasingly becoming dominated by immigrant workers, leaving some American-born workers jobless, he said. The unemployment rate in those industries hovers around 11 percent, while the employment of illegal immigrants is around 18 percent.

But immigrant rights groups say blaming immigrants for the higher unemployment rate among American-born workers is simplistic and unfair.

Immigrants are willing to work in jobs that Americans aren't and for lower wages, business groups contend.

The study emerges as Congress is grappling with a major overhaul of immigration law. Some Republicans are pushing for more border security and increased employer sanctions for hiring illegal immigrants, while more moderate Republicans and Democrats are aligning themselves with business and labor groups that are pushing for a guest worker program that would legalize the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants living and working in the United States.

"Immigration policy isn't a terribly useful tool for changing our labor market," said Cecilia Munoz, the director of the National Council of La Raza, a Hispanic rights group.

Munoz criticized the center for releasing a report intended to encourage anti-immigration outrage under the guise of concern for low-wage workers.

"The Center for Immigration Studies is not a labor organization and they don't have an agenda on behalf of low-wage workers in this country," Munoz said.

"The impact of immigration on our economy is positive. It has the effect of creating jobs."

According to the report, states such as California, Maryland, Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee have received the largest influx of immigrant workers over the last five years, while at the same time charting the largest increases in the unemployment rates of American-born workers.

Georgia's working immigrant population doubled between 2000 and 2005, while the number of Americans working dropped by 5 percent, or 103,000 workers.

The report uses statistics compiled by the Department of Labor and the U.S. Census Bureau between 2000 and 2005. It looks at American-born workers and illegal and legal immigrants between the ages of 18 and 64.

The Center for Immigration Studies supports the House approach to immigration reform, which aims to shore up the porous southern border and sanction employers who hire illegal immigrants.

Camarota said a guest-worker program would only make unemployment worse for American-born workers.

This contentious debate has lit up the air waves across the nation as local governments and state legislatures try to gain control over the national phenomenon of illegal immigration. Studies estimate that about 500,000 illegal immigrants enter the United States every year.

The Senate is in the midst of hammering out legislation on a guest-worker program that would allow the millions of illegal immigrants in the United States to work legally. A leading proposal by Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., would allow 400,000 guest workers annually and hold out the potential to become U.S. citizens. President Bush has repeatedly endorsed a guest-worker program, but not as a pathway to citizenship.


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I agree this has a bigger effect on us than they would ever want to admit. They get the job I went to college for and have years of experience yet can't get now because I don't speak Spanish. French, German....but no spanish. I pulled dead chickens in Nebraska at a chicken farm and cried because I thought I'd never have to do a job like that to survive for 6.25 an hour. But I did it. But then we had an influx of "undocumented" immigrants and we were let go because they changed their insurance policy and they could have them without having to have insurance. So I moved again and now it's still "spanish" speaking a plus!!! I'm an over 50 yr old white woman that doesn't speak spanish. My social security will be non-existant when it's my turn to collect. My taxes are sky rocketing for all the new schools needed for the influx of illegal aliens, I can't get OTC allergy pills without showing ID etc. coz of the meth labs, my kid can't get help with college because that "fund" has been depleated in order to make sure our immigrants have a fair shot at this great life. But hey.......come on in!!!!!!! I'll need them in order to learn how to survive in a third world country!

Welcome crazybird


Oh we know how you feel. It is great to have aboard.

I don't want them touching anything I eat, or eat off of...plates, etc.


You know if they are illegal, they have not had a health exam!

Welcome crazybird! Glad to have you with us!

Welcome crazybird.

I would swear you're from NC. What you say sounds so familiar.

Welcome crazybird, good to have you aboard.

I sympathize with what you have told us. Yes, it's just not right that this is what you have had to do to survive in your own country. It's being given away, compliments of our rotten President. I sincerely hope your luck will turn, I look forward to more of your postings.