Obama Neglects Impact of Immigration on Jobs

Yesterday evening, the President appeared before a joint session of Congress – one he requested simply because he wanted to use the House chamber to make a speech – to demand that a bill pass that has yet to be drafted. The proposed bill is supposed to create jobs and get the economy back on track. The word “immigration” never crossed his lips, and at no point did he address the impact that the nation’s mass immigration crisis has on a host of related economic problems. These troubling trends include; the disappearance of the American middle class; massive deficits created, in part, by uncontrolled social spending; a dramatic decline in U.S. competitiveness; and the staggering degree of unfair competition engendered in the nation’s labor force as a result of the presence of so many illegal workers. The President plans to spend billions of dollars in an attempt to generate new jobs at the same time that we continue to allow over one million new immigrant and nonimmigrant workers to enter the U.S. each year in search of work. His plan will allow perhaps hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens to obtain work authorization through administrative amnesty. It will accelerate a trend in allowing nonimmigrant visa holders to remain indefinitely and enter the labor force. It will continue to exacerbate an unskilled, semi-skilled and dated-skilled surplus that will destroy what remains of the American Dream for the children in many middle class families. And the President’s plan includes allowing illegal workers to remain in the U.S. looking for work indefinitely.Previously FAIR has warned that big spending jobs programs often benefit illegal workers. The President himself warned that in the modern age, corporations can move jobs anywhere. Is his plan to so flood the labor market with foreign labor that all boats (except for yachts) will fall together in the U.S.? If not, why wouldn’t the President give the American worker a break and take a look at how the nation’s immigration policies are hindering, not helping, future economic recovery and growth? That would be leadership – real leadership – and it’s long overdue.