Reclaim 8 million jobs
The United States is facing the most severe economic downturn since the Great Depression. As the unemployment rate stubbornly hovers around 10 percent—15 percent for those without a high school diploma—job creation is our most pressing domestic issue.
More often than not, job creation discussions center around issues such as whether tax cuts or government spending are the most effective method to spur economic growth. These topics are undoubtedly important, but often overlooked is the impact illegal immigration has on Americans and legal immigrants.
About 8 million jobs are held by illegal immigrants. Vulnerable and disadvantaged American workers have seen their incomes and job opportunities shrink. Forcing unemployed workers to compete with undocumented workers is not fair to hard-working Americans.
By simply enforcing immigration laws already on the books, we could create job opportunities for American citizens and immigrants who played by the rules to enter the U.S. Instead, the Obama administration has all but abandoned worksite enforcement efforts. In the past year alone, administrative arrests fell by 68 percent; the number of criminal arrests fell by 60 percent; the number of criminal indictments fell by 58 percent; and the number of criminal convictions fell by 63 percent. This is unacceptable and is an insult to unemployed and underemployed American workers.
Recognizing the direct link between unemployment and illegal immigration, we have formed the Reclaim American Jobs Caucus. Comprised of 30 members of Congress, we are dedicated to promoting policies that will help citizens and legal immigrants reclaim the eight million jobs held by illegal immigrants. Specifically, the Caucus seeks to expand use of the E-Verify system that allows employers to validate the eligibility of new hires, enforce workplace immigration laws, encourage attrition through enforcement, and oppose policies that encourage illegal immigration.
E-Verify is a successful and commonsense program that checks workers’ names and Social Security numbers to confirm employment eligibility. This program provides American employers who want to do the right thing with an effective way to ensure that they are hiring a legal workforce. Although nearly 180,000 employers currently use E-Verify, this program is voluntary under current law. The Reclaim American Jobs Caucus supports making E-Verify mandatory, both for new and current employees.
In addition, interior enforcement of our immigration laws is critical to the recapture of stolen American jobs. Worksite enforcement in previous years has opened up thousands of jobs for American workers.
The Reclaim American Jobs Caucus supports turning off the jobs magnet that draws illegal immigrants to America. If the federal government were to strongly enforce our immigration laws, many illegal immigrants would simply return home voluntarily. This approach—‘attrition through enforcement’—will dramatically reduce the illegal immigrant population over time.
The Reclaim American Jobs Caucus opposes amnesty for illegal immigrants. We are a nation of immigrants and also a nation of laws. Respect for the rule of law is a core American value.
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First, if you go to many rural areas, you will find that American citizens are doing jobs such as trash removal, hotel maid, waiter and waitress, construction worker, farm laborer. It’s really in the urban areas that illegal immigrants (and some legal immigrants) have taken over these jobs. So the argument that illegal immigrants do jobs Americans won’t do, doesn’t wash. You can also talk to long time construction workers and they will tell you how competition from illegal workers lowers wages and drives out established workers. Know any drywall hangers in urban areas who aren’t illegal immigrants?
Second, it is the most enterprising people who come here to improve their lives. As long as we are the safety valve for the Latin American oligarchies, those countries will never change. Why not encourage illegal immigrants to go home – with their children, American citizens or not – and watch how once having seen what economic opportunity and personal liberty means, they demand the same of their own leaders.
Third, illegal immigration is unsustainable. We cannot continue to absorb the world’s problems. We are practically bankrupt ourselves and heading for third world status. Overpopulation will only push us faster in that direction.
Unions have been complaining of job loss to illegal immigrants for a long time, and for good reason, as pointed out here in the article, and the comments that follow, but doesn’t that go against the wishes of your local Chamber of Commerce?
In truth the unions, usaid, business, and useless chamber of commerce together with the congress exploit the idea of illegal aliens in the workplace – Cheap labor. Just wait. BO’s amnesty is just around the corner. That should add another 11+ million to the health care scam.
In truth, enforcement has NOT been given a fair chance to work. Bush and Obama are only pushing ‘token’ enforcement whether its employers hiring illegal aliens or subjecting those arrested to scrutiny. The official port of entry checkpoints are a joke. DHS issued a report late last year reporting they capture nearly 28% of those seeking to enter America illegally or bring in illegal goods like drugs, at these official agent manned checkpoints. The plan was to improve that 28% to 30% this year. They never mentioned that 70% of the illegal activities get passed through. Seventy percent folks.
I have a suspicion when one finds out the ‘real’ numbers, we would discover that those numbers match the apprehensions along the entire border.
There is NO real effort to enforce immigration laws. The greedy & the do-gooder types have so corrupted the system and the process that only with someone who is serious about immigration in charge of DHS will we ever get real immigration law enforcement & border security. Lets face it, someone in power is benefiting from all that drug money being made. Wanna bet some real power players & perhaps even politicians are making big bucks from those illegal drug sales?!
We have been had, bad. They continue to crew us. Unemployment is at record levels, yet some clown wants to legalize 8 to 12 million illegal aliens so they can take jobs. And they do do the jobs Americans would do if they were not competing w/ people willing to work for slave labor rates. Those construction jobs pay well folks. Do NOT believe anyone who tells you they do jobs Americans won’t do. That is a blatant lie.
Check out the TV show on Discovery called “Dirty Jobs” starring Mike Rowe. He does a one day visit to jobs Americans do that are dirty. And many of those jobs require employees to do really dirty, disgusting, difficult work. That show proves beyond any doubt that there are NO jobs Americans won’t do so long as they can get a fair wage, some benefits, and have reasonable working conditions. Based on Mike Rowe’s visits, some of those working conditions are pretty ugly. Yet Americans ARE doing those jobs. So it is a blatant LIE when someone attempts to tell you they only do the jobs Americans won’t do.
That dog don’t hunt. The people have discovered the real story & it is exactly opposite what we have been fed by the media & enablers of illegal aliens.
Make entry a felony. Establish a system where if an alien is caught more than once, they are told they will never be permitted to enter America legally and they will never be able to join family here, no matter what! Once they know breaking our laws means real punishment, they will straighten out & fly right!
We do not need ANOTHER amnesty. The previous amnesties have ALL failed. There is no way any amnesty, even with fines, will ever stop this. Only serious law enforcement will stop this & if one opposes law enforcement they really mean they want open borders.
If our govt were to couple REAL illegal immigration enforcement with REAL welfare reform, many Americans might not find themselves “too proud” to perform such tasks to earn a paycheck. These are the perfect jobs where many of those who have made themselves virtually unemployable due to choices they made (like acquiring a criminal record, or as the Dems call it, a pre-existing condition) can find meaningful employment. But don’t expect common sense to ever be brought into these matters.
Bill Clinton did reform welfare placing a 2 year limit on it and not rewarding having more children with higher welfare payments. Welfare is not what has created our self-indulgent culture. It is the instant gratification promoted by corporatism and consumerism.
Good for you. We are a nation of laws and by their very first action in this country illegals are saying “I’m not bound by your laws”. Cut off the jobs and the social services and illegals will self-deport.
Our politicians will never have the courage to stand up to big corporations using cheap labor. The criminal justice system will never be able to stem the tide of illegal immigration as long as the World Bank policies and multi-national corporations destroy local economies in the third world and HERE in the U.S.A.
A noble gesture, but, the jobs that illegals do are generally low paying, no benefit type jobs and will do very little to reduce the unemployment rate. The real problem is Washington and if we enforced the laws we have on the books today we would have a better handle on the immigration fiasco. Washington needs to get out of the way and let business do what it does; we need lower taxes and real incentives so manufacturers will locate here rather than overseas. We need to streamline the regulations and use those that really make sense rather than tie the hands of people wanting to produce stuff. There are many things we can do, but, the current administration is headed in the wrong direction, until that changes, nothing else will matter.
You are wrong. Illegals are doing many jobs that used to provide a dignified living to American families. Cheap illegal labor has only served to depress wages and roll back human and safe labor conditions. Look up our food policies and study up on food politics to see who are America’s real enemies. Then realize that the same immoral policies apply to manufacturing and all centralized mass production economies.
Construction jobs are not low paying. But using illegals drives down costs and quality of work. Without an American workforce, how does one expect to positively influence the market. Most funds earned by the illegal work group are exported to their home country. Why do you think Mexico, Brazil, Central America, etc encourage this migration?
Sorry but illegal immigration can not be solved using law enforcement, surveillance, or fences. Enforcing the laws on the books have proven to be un-enforcible. The long term solution is to scale back Globalization and World Bank tactics that have created massive economic refugees. We need to de-centralize and localize economies such that communities become self-sustaining once again. Study up on modern food policies to see what I am talking about.
If jobs are the reason why we get rid of illegals and we think that Americans will end up with those jobs, we’re kidding ourselves. When we kick illegals out of here, those jobs go with them. We will always be at a disadvantage until the problem of global human rights is fixed. Other countries don’t play by the same rules, and that’s a real problem for US companies. Here in the US they have to pay at least living wages and benefits while other countries; Mexico included look the other way when it comes to human rights.
How is it that in 1952 Eisenhower had 2.5 million aliens deported without all the bells and whistles we have today. It works if existing is effectively enforced. However, both the dims and repugnuts don’t want to destroy their illegal voting base.
Illegal immigrants can not vote. Only their children born here can vote.
The US government lied to us yet again. The fence that we see in video’s is not the original construction designed by Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) Initially his concept was a two-layer fence barrier, that had a no-mans-land in between. It gave the US Border Patrol vehicles rapid transit across the miles, of open desert. Like all forms of serious immigration enforcement it was underfunded by Sen. Harry Reid, Speaker Pelosi and a whole bunch of corrupt politicians, on either side of the aisle. Its all to do with corporate welfare. From any distance all these immigration tools, are–ONLY SEEN TO WORK? In truth these morons undermine, compromise any system that actually has a chance of functioning. Its has been a bargaining chip for Illinois Rep. Luis Gutierrez who mysteriously changed his mind for voting the President Obama health Care Reform, after the man in the White House committed himself to another illegal immigrant AMNESTY.
Behind closed doors away from prying eyes of the general public the cards are already stacked against us. As we have seen E-Verify nearly ended up on the funeral pyre, as with the police apprehension law 287(g). Ice raids have already slowed down and the No-Match letter to employers rescinded. Behind our backs Homeland Security Madam has cut budgets for the fence and other needed enforcement. Probably to patronize Mexico whose poor uneducated population is moving here. If the Fence had been built to the original specifications, with the wide space in between for agent reconnaissance, very few individuals or groups of illegal aliens, drug smugglers, traffickers, terrorists and other criminals would be caught. IN TRUTH THE ONLY LAW THAT WOULD STOP THE ILLEGAL ALIEN INVASION FOR GOOD, IS MAKING ENTRY A FELONY?. NumbersUSA for the real truth.
Brittanicus, until we hold our corrupt congress liable for their personal agenda, we can kiss any effective enforcement good by. This has been seen in AZ, CA, CO, WA, ILL, etc with sanctuary cities, rules against local police verifying resident status, and the lax attitude of ICE.