HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. — Republican Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions expressed incredulity Monday night in response to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s press secretary saying he doesn’t “submit” to the idea that immigration hurts the wages of American workers.
“Well does he submit to the idea the sun is going to rise tomorrow,” Sen. Sessions told The Daily Caller in the “spin room” after the first presidential debate. “It’s as plain as day and night. Professor Borjas at Harvard has written this and studied it meticulously.”
George Borjas, an economics professor at Harvard, has written extensively on immigration harming American workers. He wrote that, “a theory-based framework predicts that the immigrants who entered the country from 1990 to 2010 reduced the average annual earnings of American workers by $1,396 in the short run.”
Specifically, Borjas found that, “illegal immigration reduces the wage of native workers by an estimated $99 to $118 billion a year, and generates a gain for businesses and other users of immigrants of $107 to $128 billion.”
“Who is getting hurt the most? The working people, African-Americans and Hispanic immigrants who are here today,” Sen. Sessions said to TheDC. “That’s why we have a growing wealth gap in America and why wages are down since 2000 by at least $1700.”
Sen. Sessions is the chairman of the Senate subcommittee on Immigration and the National Interest. He has endorsed Donald Trump.