This fight is about jobs.
Yes, the fight to de-fund Pres. Obama's unilateral executive amnesty and to turn back other executive actions is also about the separation of powers, the Constitution and a number of other important things.
It is NOT primarily about whether the President chooses to ignore congressionally passed laws requiring deportation of illegal aliens.
It IS primarily about whether the President will be allowed to give out millions of work permits to illegal aliens.
The immigration battle in the DHS spending bill is primarily about whether Americans will get the new jobs being created by the economy or whether millions of unlawfully present foreign workers will be given work permits to compete for the new jobs, too.
We are hearing a lot of good news about the number of new jobs being created recently. The number each month is finally higher than the number of new immigrants arriving each month, so there is a chance that American workers may start to reap some of the benefits. A recent study by the Center of Immigration Studies found that nearly all the job growth since the recession has gone to foreign workers.
But just as the number of new jobs is growing fast enough to benefit Americans, millions of illegal aliens are being offered work permits that will allow them to apply and compete directly against Americans for those jobs.
Many reporters have said to me, "But this doesn't have anything to do with jobs because most of these undocumented immigrants already are working in jobs."
But the illegal aliens do NOT currently have access to apply for the new jobs being created in legitimate, law-abiding businesses. Pres. Obama's unilateral action would open every one of those jobs to illegal aliens. And that would mean that hundreds of thousands -- if not millions -- of Americans who otherwise would get those jobs will be left out.
ROY BECK is Founder & President of NumbersUSA
