If Workers Overseas Compete for Jobs, Why Would They Stop After Moving Here?
If workers abroad are able to compete against U.S. workers and hold wages down in the U.S., what changes when they cross the border to move to the U.S. illegally? It is nonsensical to say unskilled foreign workers hold down wages when they work outside the U.S., but somehow when they come to the U.S. they are too unskilled to compete directly against Americans.
LA Police Chief Says Not Enforcing the Law Makes Policing Easier
“With nearly half of the city’s population Hispanic and the federal government’s aggressive efforts to identify and deport illegal immigrants sowing fear in immigrant communities, Beck believed that his success or failure as chief rested heavily on whether he could replicate Bratton’s success — but this time with Latinos,” the LA Times writes.”In an interview, Beck said he was driven to act on some level by his sense that he can and should help level the playing field for illegal immigrants, whom he said have suffered unfairly from crude federal immigration laws. But Beck said those personal views were not as important as his more practical belief that extending an olive branch to immigrants in Los Angeles was vital to the LAPD’s crime-fighting efforts.”
Non-Citizens Found on Colorado Voter Rolls
“There are 300 more suspected noncitizens on Colorado’s voter rolls, Secretary of State Gessler announced Tuesday in the latest chapter of a contentious national debate over what Republicans say is a vulnerability in the voting system,” the Huffington Post writes.”The latest figures are from the 3,903 people who received letters from Gessler’s office questioning their citizenship in August. During the first round of checks, Gessler said 141 others were found to be possible noncitizens based on a federal immigration database.”
Illegal Immigration Rate Increases
“A new report by U.S. and Mexican researchers suggests an uptick in the number of illegal migrants headed to the United States in the first half of 2012, and a slight decrease in migrants returning to Mexico. The report by Mexico’s Colegio de la Frontera Norte and the University of Southern California’s Tomas Rivera Policy Institute says the U.S. Mexican migrant population appears to have stabilized and may be growing slightly,” WOAI reports.
If Workers Overseas Compete for Jobs, Why Would They Stop After Moving Here?
“Many of the bedrock assumptions of American culture — about work, progress, fairness, and optimism — are being shaken as successive generations worry about the prospect of declining living standards. No question, perhaps, is more central to the country’s global standing than whether the economy will perform better on that score in the future than it has in the recent past,” says the New York Times.”Take immigration, especially illegal immigration. Whatever other problems it may cause, evidence suggests that it has not played a significant role in the income slump. It may have caused a slight decline in the wages of native-born workers without a high school diploma (and maybe not even that). But most illegal immigrants lack the skills to compete with the bulk of native workers,” says David Leonhardt.”One of the more striking recent developments in economics has been economists’ growing acceptance of the idea that globalization has held down pay for a large swath of workers. The public has long accepted the idea, but economists resisted it, pointing to the long-term benefits of trade.”