Thursday Immigration Blog Roundup

by: The Opportunity Agenda

Thu May 28, 2009 at 12:13

This week's blog rounds up a few immigration-related issues, such as military service, public health and, of course, the Sotomayor nomination.

Standing FIRM answered the question "What does Obama's SCOTUS nomination have to do with immigration reform?" While commentators are suggesting that the nomination is an indication of Obama trying to delay immigration reform, FIRM reminded us that the President is already scheduled to meet with Congressional leaders on immigration reform on June 8th.

Professor Michael A. Olivas of the University of Houston wrote of the nominee:

Judge Sotomayor's life and legal career are arcs possible only in this country: a hardscrabble life in a South Bronx housing project, educational opportunities made possible by her own intelligence and hard work, and a legal career devoted to public service.

A new poll by America's Voice also reminded us that immigration reform is a crucial issue for Latino voters, who voted overwhelmingly for Obama and largely expect him to "do the right thing" on immigration.

The Opportunity Agenda :: Thursday Immigration Blog Roundup

Change.org blogged this week about the positive impact immigrants have had on cities losing its populations. Philadelphia shrank by 30 percent between 1950-2000, and was stabilized by immigrants replacing those leaving. Now community leaders in Cleveland are looking at the Philadelphia example to address their own population decline, which could shrink to under 400,000 in 2010.

The Associated Press also ran a story on the number of foreign-born soldiers in the military, which is now 31,000, or 1.5 percent. In a Memorial Day ceremony, 150 immigrants serving in Afghanistan were naturalized by U.S. immigration officials.

Change.org blogged on three public health reasons to pass immigration reform:

-Failing to pass immigration reform hinders other reform efforts, including health care reform.
-Excluding undocumented workers from access to health care makes documented workers less competitive, putting pressure on employers to cut health benefits for documented workers.
-Excluding undocumented workers from health coverage is bad health policy for everyone.

Latina Lista's guest blogger, Dr. Douglas Massey, is a sociologist who researches the behavior of documented and undocumented immigrants in the United States and recently testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Citizenship recently. In his testimony, he stated:

Unfortunately the current immigration crisis is very much one of our own making, reflecting bad policy choices in the past; but fortunately this means that with better policy choices we have the power to resolve the dilemma moving forward.

Finally, here's a summary of the Reuniting Families Act sponsored by Senators Menendez, Gillibrand and Kennedy:

-Recapture unused family-based and employment-based visas previously allocated by Congress which remain unused.
-Allow green card holders to reunite with their spouses and minor children.
-Increase the per country limits of family and employment based visas from 7% to 10%.
-Allow widows and widowers to immigrate despite death of a petitioner.
-Promote family unity by allowing more people to use the system.
-Recognize the sacrifices that certain World War II Filipino veterans made for this country by exempting their children from the numerical caps on visas.

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Thursday Immigration Blog Roundup | 1 comments

The First Question Is This: What Is In The Best Interests Of The Citizens Of The U.S.? (0.00 / 0)

People always start the immigration discussions from the standpoint of U.S. businesses (they want an unrestricted flow of cheap, desperate, immigrant labor to keep down wages and benefits in this country); or from the standpoint of the immigrants or would-be immigrants (it would make their lives better if they could work here legally).

But any discussion about immigration must start with the question of what is in the best interests of the citizens of the U.S. The clear answer to that is that the unrestricted flow of immigrants into this country has been a disaster for the citizens and working people of this country. More labor chasing jobs decreases wages, benefits, working conditions, and job security. American working people have been screwed because of the Bush (and Clinton) policies encouraging tens of millions of third world people to come to the U.S. and take American jobs.

The specifics are even of greater consequence. For example, 30 years ago skilled carpenters in California earned $18-25/hour. In recent years, with the open borders from Mexico, most of the new construction jobs have gone to illegal immigrants who work for $8/hour. The "savings" goes into the pockets of the developers, not into a reduced asking price for new homes (which prices have risen 200% during the same time period). Further, the illegal immigrants sent billions back to Mexico every year to support their families. Admirable family commitments, but if these jobs were done by Americans, as they should have been, that money would have been spent right here, and been a boon to our own economy. Of course carpet manufacturing, meat processing, many other entire industries now only employ illegal immigrants. These are jobs that used to pay a decent wage to American workers. No more.

Further, the average illegal immigrant does not earn enough to pay taxes. The entire argument about mass immigration being a "boon" to a community is only presented from the standpoint that business benefits from having cheap labor. But communities lose big-time.

You have a radical increase in the demands on all government services, yet the people who are immigrants pay essentially no taxes because they don't earn enough to pay taxes. Yet their children flood the schools with special needs such as language requirements. They use the hospital emergency rooms like clinics (because they have no healthcare, and no money to pay for it), which has actually bankrupt many hospitals in Southern California.

Illegal immigrants increase the demands on the fire, police, roads, transportation, sanitation, water, and sewer systems, accelerating the deterioration. Because so many illegal immigrants earn so little money, property owners rent out small older houses to 20 workers, which causes overcrowding and an overall decline in the neighborhoods by homes and garages essentially being turned into barracks.

Look at California. It is broke. Part of the reason is the unrestricted flow of illegal immigrants.

The demand by the Hispanic community is for amnesty, which is a ridiculous demand and should be opposed. How could any American support legalizing an additional 20-30 million people from another country to take American jobs during a time of such high unemployment? It is time to pick a team. Nobody has the right to try to "help" the people of Mexico by giving away your neighbor's job. It's just nonsense.

The government should create a foolproof system of ID for legal immigrants. Any employer who relies on that will be okay. Any employer who hires anyone without a proper ID card should be fined $10,000/day per worker. And the fines should go into unemployment funds.

Anyone here more than a certain amount of time (say 10 years) should be allowed to apply for amnesty under basic principles of fairness. We don't want to deport grandma, who's lived here since she was 4. But people who came recently should get nothing more than a bus ticket home.

We need to end the idea that people from other countries have some right to come here and take American jobs. They don't. We need to clearly stand up for American working people. The corporate institutions, the government and the media all work to convince American workers that they are worthless, entitled to nothing. We need to stand up for American working people and get them to start fighting back.

Anybody who wants to work on behalf of the people of Mexico should move to Mexico. Same for India. But a progressive in this country must stand on the side of American working people who are entitled to jobs with a living wage, and benefits, and pensions, and schools, and social services. By bringing tens of millions of desperately poor workers into our country to exhaust social resources and take American jobs, we are dooming our neighbors and, ultimately, the working people of our country.

I would also add that all the liberals who support amnesty based on some sentimental theory that they can "help" the poor people of Mexico or India by giving away some other American's job might want to step back and think for a minute. Because outsourcing jobs, whether sending them to other countries or importing the workers, is on its way into the middle class. I suspect a liberal college professor, pro-amnesty, might see this issue differently if their tenure was abolished and job given away to a smart lady from Indonesia who would work for a fraction of the cost.

If we do not stand up for the working Americans, if we instead stand up for the rights of businesses to import workers anytime they want, we are working for the capitalists and against the people of our own country. Immigration "reform" should not mean open borders. The only "reform" we need is to start enforcing the existing laws. Deport people who are here illegally if they commit a crime, or are caught working, and enforce the laws against hiring people without proper documentation. And no amnesty.

by: NABNYC @ Thu May 28, 2009 at 16:23:50 PM CDT