Immigration Reform

Wed, Feb 23, 2011

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By Francis Rojas

This has always been a controversial and hot topic. In the State of the Union address, President Obama pointedly asks Congress to take up this debate and think about what will be best for our country. What Obama has proposed is a way to retain highly talented and specialized individuals, so they don’t compete against the US in a global market.

Immigration reform, of any kind, is always ruled by fear of the unknown. Take, for instance, the books Dracula or Frankeinstein. Those books clearly delineated the “us” versus “them.” The “them” being the foreigners, of course. The foreigners, who have different customs, talk differently, and did not grow up in your little town. The foreigners that bring about change, and consequently, drift society into an unknown and unpredictable future. Who is to say what the future will be like? How will it change as the masses in the cities change? How will the society change and adapt to its new residents? All of these questions are unknowns, which may put many people uneasy.

However, history has shown that the US has prospered because of the inclusion of foreigners. Foreigners were the ones who came to the Americas looking for a better life. With the idea that if you work hard and are loyal to your company, you will have a constant paycheck and maybe you will live to see your children go to the same company (more or less, in Obama’s words).

So in what shape will immigration reform come about?

Congress has certainly made clear its statement that it wishes to take away the rights of US born babies with foreigner parents. On the other hand, Congress has also tried to delineate a way to make sure that it attracts talented individuals in the skills they are most needed, such as science and medicine.

Throughout the Obama’s administration, the federal government has also increased its surveillance on employers’ records, to make sure that all of the employees are authorized to work. The government, instead of supporting the infamous raids at different work sites and grabbing people (citizens or not), are now sending letters to employers and seeking fines when appropriate. This has been commonly coined as the “silent raids.” As a note, before you go about submitting your employees to e-verify, I suggest you brush up on the rules about who can be subjected to e-verify and at what point in their employment.

Based on their prior actions, it is safe to assume that any immigration reform will focus on qualified professionals. After all, work visas are numbered pursuant to the law, and not all qualified professionals may get them. The bigger question is whether any immigration reform will deal with US born children, with employers, and with the workers. Last year, the Dream Act was discussed, but it failed to pass both house and senate.

Regardless of what occurs, it is obvious that something must be done.

immigration

This post was written by:

Francis Rojas - who has written 31 posts on JDs Rising.

Francis practices in the areas of employment and labor law. She focuses on helping workers who have experienced employment discrimination, harassment and retaliation. In addition, Francis counsels workers who have experienced wage and hour violations. Francis also advises workers in union organizing campaigns and assists unions with contract enforcement. She graduated from William Mitchell College of Law in 2008 and has a B.A. in Psychology and Sociology from Augsburg College. While in law school, Francis interned with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. She also helped individuals and non-profit organizations through the William Mitchell Civil Advocacy Clinic and the Tax Planning Clinic. Francis was born in Bogotá, Colombia and is fluent in Spanish.

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2 Comments For This Post

Norski Says:
February 23rd, 2011 at 12:23 pm

Here we go again with someone purposefully confusing Legal Immigration which has proven to be good and Illegal Immigration which is against the law. Per the Bureau of Labor Statistics Unemployment Report of February 4, 2011:

Construction and extraction occupations = 22.9% Unemployment
Farming, fishing, and forestry occupations = 20.7% Unemployment
Production occupations = 12.3% Unemployment
Transportation, material moving occupations = 13.6% Unemployment
Service occupations = 10.4% Unemployment

Total Unadjusted US Unemployed Citizens and Legal Residents = 14,937,000
This figure and the above rates exclude 6,643,000 Persons who want a job but are left out of the above statistics for various reasons.
Total Number of Americans Looking for Work = 21,580,000
Plus that means the real unemployment rates for the occupations above are actually 44% larger when you include the excluded people.

Pew Center estimates indicate 7.5 million Illegal Immigrants work in the USA with the majority employed in agriculture, office and house cleaning, construction, and food preparation. These professions are where the worst unemployment is for us Americans.

Meanwhile Management, professional, and related occupations where few Illegal Immigrants work have a 4.7% Unemployment rate.

In fact Illegal Immigration has devastated our Citizen and Legal Resident workforce. If all Illegal Immigrants left tomorrow there would be three US Citizens and Legal Residents competing for every job previously held by an Illegal Immigrant. Facts from our own government show this picture very clearly. There is no question the Illegal Immigration is harmful to the American Worker.

But let’s go one step further. Over the twenty years from the signing of Simpson-Mazzoli in 1986 to the start of the current recession in 2008, the American Economy was able to create an average of 1.66 million new jobs per year. During that time our Native Born have increased our workforce by an average of 0.5 million workers per year and we have admitted a million new legal immigrant workers per year. Since these figures are out of balance by 0.16 million people, the number of unemployed in the USA should have declined by 3.4 million people from 1986 to 2007. Also note that because of the short time frame, the children of Illegal Immigrants have a negligible impact on these statistics.

The number of unemployed people in 1986 averaged 8.2 million. Without illegal immigration the number of unemployed people in 2007 should have been 4.8 million. In fact, it 2007 unemployment averaged 11.8 million people. In 2006 the Pew Center estimated that there were 7.2 million Illegal Immigrant Workers in the USA. This means that within the margin of error of the statistics, for each new Illegal Immigrant Worker in the USA, one American Worker joined the ranks of the unemployed. And if one examines the Bureau of Labor Statistics 2007 unemployment rates by profession, the unemployed Americans lost their jobs in the same professions where Illegal Immigrant Workers are now most prevalent per the Pew Center – agricultural jobs, office and house cleaning positions, construction jobs, and food preparation.

Cracking down on Illegal Immigration is not caused by a fear of the unknown. It is caused by a fear of the known devastating impact of Illegal Immigration on the American Worker.

Brittanicus Says:
February 23rd, 2011 at 4:37 pm

NEVER-ENDING WAR

Those States that are still catering to the illegal alien invasion will not get any sympathy from the majority of Americans. By now all States have seen the developing costs associated with people stealing across our national border and entering into this country under the pretext of being a tourist or student. Every year from every corner of the world, thousands come to the US, to have their children fully aware that this child will have dual citizenship and can take financial advantage of the 14th Amendment provisions. Many States– like the illegal alien popular State of California and now Nevada is bearing towards disaster with their unregulated use of tax dollars to pay for the education for their offspring, and the need for the uninsured–medical care. Arizona was so close the border fence that it accumulated hundreds of thousands of uninvited guests, lowering job opportunities for less educated citizens and yet hardly aiding the tax base.

Every State now has the opportunity to mandate E-Verify, Local police action law 287(g) and Secure Communities operations nationwide or become that money magnet for illegal nationals. Have the leadership in Washington; other than the Tea Party politicians, forget that there are over 10 million legitimate workers around praying for a job? In many instances any job, but they are still combating business owners who are concealing those foreign nationals in their employ. Since the joke of the 1986 amnesty the leadership both Liberals-Democrats and Republicans have colluded to put not to emphasis on sealing the border, as both parties had agendas. Businesses filled lawmaker’s campaign chests to flaunt the US labor force, while the opposite party has added large numbers of illegal hires into the unions, which were losing members dues. It’s scary to think that 8 million plus illegal workers have not been purged from the job market? But then when certain politicians have the ear of the Liberal progressives, big business and the wide-open floodgate border fanatics, we cannot expect anything else but corruption.

Documentation from the GAO (General Accounting Office) has disclosed finally, that for every one dollar spent by illegal nationals; they get a return of between three and four dollars. But this problem is beyond credibility as the taxpayer’s bill, keeps on mounting rapidly. All politicians had better care that’s happening here, because American people have finally begun to wake and learning why their taxes keep rising. As the Federal management has failed to pay attention, so the States are trying to defend their own inhabitants from illegal labor occupation. A reasonable question to ask all the leadership in Washington and all State lawmakers is where are thousands of illegal immigrants whose lives were disrupted by Arizona’s policing provisions–flew to places unknown? My guess is they didn’t go far?

As more State legislators are fighting for their own survival and they enact tough illegal alien restraining enforcement the likely destination is California, Nevada, Colorado, Texas, perhaps Utah and anywhere further afield that panders to the large ethnic blocs and illegal immigrant and migrant families. One only can imagine the chaos as hundreds of thousands of these people end up in welfare lines, hospital waiting rooms and adding to even higher expenditures to join the millions already there. Countless thousands will join the already clogged neighborhoods in the social service State of California, others will go elsewhere. California is already burdened with a 24 billion dollar deficit meltdown, Nevada will be looking for another $3.billion to cover its debt as Carson City is investigating another tax hike. An estimated $113 billion dollars goes to support illegal aliens yearly and these dollars are also climbing throughout America. Many States that includes Indiana, Utah are still meandering around any no tolerance laws, which will also attract multitudes of illegal aliens looking for jobs and yet another welfare office.

Now is the time to shield this nation from foreign invaders, from drug dealers, criminals and those who come and expect citizens and legally authorized residents to keep paying for the rest of the world’s poor. This is why the Tea Party was organized on a grand scale and that’s why hundreds of pro-sovereignty groups are recruiting people who have just had enough of the games played by our politicians. One amnesty was enough that turned into a travesty and burned every taxpaying American. ICE should go into every Sanctuary City in force and arrest every Mayor, Elected officer who has engineered these provisions. NumbersUSA has a million regular citizens who want to prevent further exploitation of this nation by foreign countries, to elevate their pressure valve of growing impoverished, wanting populations.

Considering this Administration didn’t carry on the construction of the 2006 Secure Fence Act as designed, it’s no wonder the fence was mismanaged. It is supposed to be a two layer fence, electrified and topped with concertina razor wire. The border fence has not even been half completed?

Donald Trump for President? He would stop the unfair trade practices of Communist China’s commerce and the billions of dollars owed that country in cheap inferior goods.

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