100 GOP donors demand more cheap labor from Congress
NumbersUSA.com
Roy Beck
PLEASE PHONE CONGRESS BEFORE IT LEAVES D.C. ON AUGUST RECESS.
Quote:
S. 744, that bill does NOT require border security before giving out work permits and legal status, does NOT require illegal aliens to pay back taxes, and does NOT put the illegal aliens in the back of the line, instead letting them have jobs at the front of the line of 20 million Americans who can't find a full-time job, as well as in front of people waiting in line in other countries to come to the U.S. as legal immigrants.
Congressional offices have been blanketed this week with a letter from more than 100 of what the New York Times called top political donors and fundraisers:
Included are corporate chiefs like Tom Stemberg (a founder of Staples) and Frank VanderSloot (founder of Melaleuca Inc.), and heads of PACs like Pres. Bush alumni Karl Rove and former Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez.
Their message is pretty simple: They demand that the elected officials give work permits to some 11 million illegal aliens and open the doors for the additional foreign labor that the Corporate Elite say they need.
Of course, there was no mention of how these tens of millions of additional immigrants might affect the 20 million Americans who the government says want a full-time job but can't find one.
The rationale behind asking for millions more foreign workers while so many Americans are unemployed was explained by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.). I'll give you more of that interview below, but his basic message was that it is a bad idea to attract American workers with higher wages instead of just filling jobs with immigrant workers at lower wages.
PAUL RYAN'S ARGUMENT AGAINST RAISING AMERICAN WAGES
Congressman Ryan told National Journal that immigration must be increased because:
"We're going to have labor shortages when the baby boomers are fully retired."
Even if he is right (and there are many reasons to suggest he is not), let's note that the Baby Boomers won't be fully retired for another 20 years. Why is Ryan forcing massive increases in foreign workers now?
The National Journal was particularly interested in why Rep. Ryan is pushing for more immigration of low-skilled workers.
Ryan responded:
Low-skilled immigrants "bring labor to our economy so jobs can get done." Many business have "trouble finding anyone to help them produce their products . . . The flip side of the argument is: Just raise wages enough to attract people. But you raise wages too much in certain industries, then you'll get rid of those industries, and we'll just have to import."
It appears that in Rep. Ryan's mind it is better to have Americans unemployed and dependent on taxpayers than to hire them at higher wages. He seems to accept the decline in real wages for non-college Americans the last three decades as just something that has to be in order for businesses to continue to operate in the United States.
When you call your Representative, say that you disagree with Paul Ryan's insistence that the only way to keep jobs in America is to keep wages so low that only immigrant workers will do them.
Big-Name G.O.P. Donors Urge Members of Congress to Back Immigration Overhaul
That was the headline on the New York Times story which stated:
The letter argues that a refusal to change the immigration system amounts to "de facto amnesty," and the signers outline three steps that they say are integral to any overhaul.
"To fix our immigration system we need meaningful reforms that will (1) secure our borders, (2) provide a legal way for U.S.-based companies to hire the workers they need while making it impossible to hire workers here illegally, and (3) take control of our undocumented immigration problem by providing a path to legal status for undocumented immigrants who pay penalties and back taxes, pass criminal background checks, and go to the back of the line."
Interestingly although the signers of the letter largely back the Senate-passed S. 744, that bill does NOT require border security before giving out work permits and legal status, does NOT require illegal aliens to pay back taxes, and does NOT put the illegal aliens in the back of the line, instead letting them have jobs at the front of the line of 20 million Americans who can't find a full-time job, as well as in front of people waiting in line in other countries to come to the U.S. as legal immigrants.
I join the elected officials last night in pleading with you to pick up that phone and tell your U.S. Representative that you oppose the Corporate Elites and Paul Ryan who oppose higher wages for Americans and prefer for the taxpayers to take care of the unemployed while employers hire foreign workers.
