Thread: Why Is GOP Pushing Disastrous Low-Skilled Immigration Increase?

Why Is GOP Pushing Disastrous Low-Skilled Immigration Increase?



11/10/2015 06:14 PM ET


Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis. speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington. The White House accused new House Speaker Paul Ryan on Monday... View Enlarged Image

Immigration: Right out of the chute, the first thing a GOP-led Congress pushes under new Speaker Paul Ryan is a bill that would boost the number of low-skilled immigrant workers in the U.S. Have they learned nothing?

Americans with little education and low skills are falling behind the rest of America, studies and data clearly show. Once able to find jobs that required minimal skills but paid decent wages, these workers can no longer compete with low-wage immigrant labor.

It's all a matter of simple economics, really. When you flood a nation with cheap labor, wages go down — especially for those with fewest skills and least education.

So that's why we're a little perplexed to see a Republican Congress pursuing the Strengthen Employment and Seasonal Opportunities Now (Season) Act right out of the gate.

This bill changes the H-2B program, under which 66,000 foreign unskilled, "seasonal" nonagricultural workers are allowed into America each year.

It's a broad category, including everything from cooks and construction workers to seafood processing and truck driving — jobs that were once middle-class mainstays, but are now done by foreign workers.

The new law lets these "seasonal" workers who come here stay for as long as three years. And, of course, three years would eventually turn into many, many years as foreign workers overstay work visas.

The net effect will be to lift the number of low-skill foreign workers in the U.S. permanently.

This law is troubling for a couple of reasons.

First, it is a Republican law. Haven't Republicans gotten the message from repeated polls and angry town hall meetings that Americans at all levels do not want the country flooded with cheap labor?

It seems politically foolish to make this one of the first things you do under a new speaker's leadership. Our own IBD/TIPP Poll, taken in August, found 59% of Americans want all illegals deported, period. For Republicans, it's 81%. Immigration is a highly sensitive political topic, but Republican leaders seem clueless.

Second, if passed, this bill will only add to the misery of native-born, low-income families whose incomes have declined for decades.

Studies confirm that as much as 43% in the decline of wages for low-income workers in high-immigration areas is due to an influx in cheap foreign labor.

A 2010 Congressional Research Service report, for instance, cites a study by Harvard economist George Borjas that found that a 10% increase in the number of foreign workers in a given skill group reduced weekly wages for native-born workers by 4% and the number of weeks they work by 3%.

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It is beyond crazy but their bosses must what the cheap labor so the Republicans, who are their puppets, do as they are told. Forget any of them actually doing their job which we elect them to do, protect the American public.

This was to be expected when Ryan took the helm. Of course that fact doesn't make it go down any easier. Saying I told you so, which many of us did, doesn't help either!