"Many of the scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project, making the U.S. a nuclear power and ending the Second World War, were refugees..."
Opinion by Jack Bernard | Caller Times | FEB. 4, 2022 | Photo credit: Annie Rice-Caller Times
“Secretary Mayorkas has failed to faithfully execute Americas laws and has eroded our national security in the process. He must be impeached.” -tweet by Rep. Michael Cloud, Jan. 25, 2022
Rep. Cloud has voted against the DREAM Act, which provides a pathway to citizenship for undocumented men and women who came here as children and are now productive members of our nation. In the 117th session of Congress, Rep. Cloud has supported numerous anti-immigration bills (some with extreme measures) including House Bills 6223, 5831, 5294, 4199, 3484, 2729, 1901, 1707, 1629, 413 and so on. I think we all understand where he stands.
However, as opposed to what GOP stalwarts like Rep. Michael Cloud state or imply, immigration is falling dramatically, as shown below. Conservatives say that lower immigration to the U.S. is a good thing for the economy. But, based on the facts, it’s clearly not.
Unemployment is at record lows, 3.9%. Wages for lower income workers are currently going up rapidly, even faster than inflation. Why is this happening? Because employers are finding it harder and harder to fill jobs, especially for lower wage workers.
More:Undocumented immigrants in detention centers up more than 50% since Biden took office
Conservatives are always complaining that it’s those nasty unnecessary government handouts that are responsible for cutting the workforce. But they never can say exactly what those handouts are, other than “welfare to those people” ...meaning people of color, not themselves or their relatives who may well be getting government benefits. Because these right wingers have listened to way too many Fox ideologues, they have become blindsided and are factually incorrect in their knee-jerk, anti-government views. And deeply held racist views makes it even easier for them to accept this false narrative.
There are many reasons for the labor shortage, including the COVID pandemic pushing more people to retire.
However, the tremendous drop in immigration has also had a major effect. Conservative newsletters, talking heads and politicians like Cloud constantly complain about the Biden administration being weak on immigration. But they are factually incorrect in their politically motivated whining. Immigration was at 1,049,000 in 2016, per census figures. It fell to 477,000 by the end of 2020. But in 2021 it was only 247,000 ... a drop of nearly half.
Why is that important? The proportion of immigrants versus native born people is very high in some industries. For example, in service industries, 21% are foreign born versus 14% born here. The same with the construction industry, 14% versus 8%. And immigrants are paid 11% less on average than citizens born here.
These are the people who work at the jobs that U.S. citizens traditionally do not want. Like fixing your roof, landscaping, picking up your garbage or cleaning your home. Or driving a truck for long hours across the country. My uneducated, hardworking, immigrant Italian grandfather helped to build the skyscrapers in NYC. But two of my children are MDs and the other is a teacher. That’s the American dream. Work hard and prosper.
Our immigration system is undoubtedly broken. It does need to be fixed. Virtually everyone agrees that we need to control immigration. We don’t need to let everyone into our nation; keep the horse thieves out. But admit those in danger and those who will help build the U.S. into a better country. Many of the scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project, making the U.S. a nuclear power and ending the Second World War, were refugees from Europe. Many of our best MDs working in underserved areas are immigrants or the children of immigrants.
But when President George W. Bush made an honest effort to repair the system, coming up with what he believed would be a bipartisan framework for comprehensive reform, he was ridiculed by his own party by people of the same mind set as Rep. Cloud. Due to pure politics, W got virtually no support.
We clearly need a bipartisan compromise based on American values and reality. Until the leadership of both the Democrat and the Republican parties decide that they really want to fix the system, it will remain broken and dysfunctional. And that will negatively affect American economic productivity in both the short and long term.
