Amnesty for illegal workers is not just a slap in the face to black Americans. It's an economic disaster. I see illegal immigration and the adverse impact that it has on the political empowerment of African Americans, and the impact it has on the job market. T. Willard Fair, President of the Urban League of Greater Miami, Fla.
Many occupations often thought to be worked overwhelmingly by immigrants (legal and illegal) are in fact majority native-born, according to a new study from the Center for Immigration Studies. After analyzing government data, CIS found that native-born Americans make up a majority of workers among maids and housekeepers (51%), taxi drivers and chauffeurs (54%), butchers and meat processors (64%), grounds maintenance workers (66%), construction (65%), and janitors (73%).
According to the newest Dept. of Labor statistics the number of H-2A visas granted in FY17 increased by 20% from last year. The DOL approved 200,049 H-2A visas in FY17 compared to 165,741 in FY16.
According to Politico, unless the U.S. continues to bring in low-wage workers from abroad, there will no one to care for aging Baby Boomers because "there are reason's to assume" Americans won't be taking those jobs. The reasons for that assumption are not convincing, and the article's writer inadvertently makes a compelling case for how to improve wages and working condition for home health care workers.
The Department of Justice and the State Department have formalized a partnership through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) where they have agreed to share information to protect American workers from discrimination and target employers who commit visa fraud or misuse their visas.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) has put a hold on Pres. Trump’s nominee for USCIS director, Lee Francis Cissna, until DHS Secretary Kelly increases the number of H-2B visas available for this year. In the latest omnibus spending bill, Congress granted authority to DHS to approve 70,000 additional H-2B visas over the current cap of 66,000.
The Pueblo Chieftain reports illegal aliens are returning to Mexico rather than run the risk of being deported or sent to prison for immigration violations. Self-deportation is prompting growers to increase their reliance on legal guest workers or to shift away from crops that require field labor.
According to DHS spokesman David Lapan, DHS Secretary John Kelly will use the authority granted by Congress to increase the number of H-2B visas beyond the cap limit. Lapan said that the number of additional visas is still being decided but should be set soon.
Harvard economics professor George Borjas wrote in a recent blog that he's seeing a shift in the narrative used by immigration expansionists to support an increase in legal immigration levels, focusing less on the benefits of mass immigration on the economy and more on the negative impacts of reducing immigration.
According to DHS spokesman, David Lapan, DHS Secretary John Kelly has not made a decision to increase H-2B visas. This is a slight back track from the DHS Secretary’s initial statement on May 25, where he said he would likely grant the increase.
NumbersUSA recently sent a letter to DHS Secretary John Kelly asking him not to use the authorization, given to DHS in the omnibus, to approve more H-2B visas over the current 66,000 visa cap. In May, Congress passed the provision that would allow for another 70,000 visas to be issued in the current fiscal year.
Led by Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), a bipartisan group of Senators sent a letter to DHS Secretary John Kelly and Labor Secretary Alex Acosta urging them not to increase the number of H-2B visas in 2017 despite authorization by Congress in the recently passed omnibus spending bill. Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), David Perdue (R-Ga.), and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) also signed the letter.
Sen. Johnson's guest worker + amnesty bill raises questions about the appropriate role for the states in determining immigration policy, but the line that divides the cheerleaders from the hecklers is a familiar one. Supporters want more immigration; opponents want less.
On Thursday, Senator Ron Johnson (WI) introduced a brand-new approach to adding unnecessary foreign workers: state sponsored visas.
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) delivered a speech on the Senate floor last week shortly before the chamber voted on the omnibus spending bill that more than doubled the number H-2B visas that can be issued for the remainder of the fiscal year. Sen. Cotton, who has introduced legislation that would cut permanent, legal immigration in half, said that Congress ignored the lessons of the 2016 election and is out of touch with the American people.
Reports indicate that American businesses seeking guest workers may be suffering from their own lack of skills or initiative. But it turns out that hiring domestic workers is a job Americans will do.
Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, issued a joint statement yesterday afternoon critical of the H-2B visa increase that appropriators slipped into the omnibus spending bill. Congressional Leaders and Appropriators released the massive spending bill on Sunday night that will fund the government through the end of September. Congress is expected to vote on the bill later this week.
The House Appropriations Committee released text late Sunday night on a compromise spending bill that would allow for a doubling of the number of H-2B visas for FY2017. Congress has until Friday night to approve a spending bill to avoid a government shutdown.
More evidence that the guest-worker solution has become part of the domestic hiring problem: Businesses tell Politico that the threat of audits might lead them to recruit American workers.
Pres. Trump picked Kevin Hassett to become the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors, Breitbart News reports. Hassett has been an outspoken supporter of higher immigration levels and outsourcing American jobs.
Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Mark Warner (D-VA) were joined by 30 other senators in sending a letter to DHS Secretary John Kelly asking that he conduct an audit of the H-2B visa program to determine how many of the H-2B visas were unused in the first part of the fiscal year. Then they request that any unused visas be made available to employers.
"I think there is an elephant in the room that the NAS report alludes to, but cannot bring itself to say out loud. So I will: All estimates of the long-run fiscal impact are useless!"
The AFL-CIO endorsed the Gang of 8's massive expansion of legal immigration in 2013, but the union's President Richard Trumka was pleased with Pres. Trump's message on immigration during his speech before a joint session of Congress.
For five weeks, the White House bully pulpit has been quiet in terms of repeating Donald Trump's campaign promises to rescue vulnerable American workers from the harm of a reckless legal immigration system.
That changed tonight with Pres. Trump's address to a joint session of Congress.
Politico/Morning Consult released a poll today showing that only 30% of registered American voters believe that H-1B workers fill jobs Americans are not able to perform. 44% said that H-1B visa holders definitely fill job opportunities that Americans could do.
The Blaze -- Kevin J. Mooney
A case in point that is worth greater attention and scrutiny in the run up to the Iowa and New Hampshire primaries is the H-2B Visa program that was approved as part of the omnibus bill President Barack Obama signed into law in December. The provision concerning foreign guest workers is found on page 701 of the bill.
In a New York Times op-ed entitled “Fix Immigration. It’s What Voters Want” Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., argues President-elect Trump “has a clear mandate not only to stop illegal immigration, but also to finally cut the generation-long influx of low-skilled immigrants that undermines American workers.” He says the nation needs an immigration policy that focuses less on powerful special interests and more on everyone else.
A new authoritative study released by the National Academy of Sciences shows that mass immigration drives down annual wages by 5.2% for native-born workers who are in direct competition with immigrants for jobs while costing taxpayers around $299 billion in public services. The study found that the net economic benefit of mass immigration is around $55 billion but that money results from a $500 billion wage transfer from low-skilled workers to businesses.
A recent study by the Center for Immigration Studies found that immigrants are replacing low-skilled native-born men in the workforce. The study shows a significant decline in hours worked from 2003-2015 for native born workers while it has increased for immigrant workers in the same category.
During a call-in press conference on Wednesday, Tom Nassif, President and CEO of the Western Growers Association (WGA), made a push for amnesty to bring in more foreign workers in order to drive down rising wages. He alleged that there is a labor shortage that is causing competition among businesses and that “wages are going up dramatically”.
The number of Syrian refugees entering the U.S. doubled from May to June 2016, from 1,060 in May to 2,381 in June. This brings the total number of Syrian refugees to 5,186 and means Pres. Obama only needs to bring in 1,604 refugees per month through September to reach his goal of 10,000 Syrian refugees for the fiscal year.
During ‘PBS NewsHour’ on Friday David Brooks, a New York Times columnist, attributed high immigration levels as a root cause of the Brexit vote and that similar attitudes can be found in the U.S. He said, “I’m as pro-immigration as the day is long, but we’ve asked a lot of people who are suffering in this economy to accept extremely, radically high immigration levels. And we’ve probably overflooded the system.”
The House Appropriations Committee adopted an amendment that would extend the H-2B visa increase that was passed in last year’s omnibus bill. The extension would be for one year and could quadruple the number of foreign, H-2B visa workers.
The labor participation rate for working-age men in the United States ranks in the bottom three among developed nations in the world, according to a new report from the White House's Council of Economic Advisors. The report said that 88% of men between the ages of 25 and 54 are working compared to a high-water mark of 98% in 1954. Men with a high school degree or less are suffering the most and could worsen under efforts by several Members of Congress to increase the number of H-2B visas given to low-skilled foreign workers.
When Baltimore, Maryland and Ferguson, Missouri exploded in civil unrest the last two years, police incidents were the catalysts. But many commentators, including Pres. Obama, suggested that joblessness and economic hopelessness – especially among the young – were the fuel that sustained the street rage.
Expert witnesses told a Senate panel on Wednesday that there is no evidence to support the idea that H-2B visa workers fill in labor shortages for jobs that employers claim "Americans will not do". The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration and the National Interest held the hearing to discuss how the H-2B visa impacts American job opportunities and wages before a likely debate over the issue in Congress this summer.
Who says the age of bipartisanship is dead? Politico reports that Republican and Democrat lawmakers are coming together on an issue they can agree on: the critical shortage of low-wage workers in the United States.
The American middle class shrunk in 90% of 229 metros across the nation between 2000 and 2014, according to a report released this week by the Pew Research Center. In half of the metros, more Americans moved from the middle-income tier to the lower-income tier than from the middle-income tier to the upper-income tier.
Margo Walsh, CEO of MaineWorks, has found a way to fill jobs with unemployed Americans instead of relying on foreign workers. Walsh’s firm promotes the hiring of convicted felons into jobs in construction, landscaping, and property maintenance; jobs that many companies would like to fill with H-2B visa holders and other foreign workers.
Nine House Members, headed by Rep. Billy Long (R-Mo.), sent a letter to the Appropriations Subcommittee for Homeland Security asking them to continue the increase of H-2B visas that was approved in the omnibus spending bill last year.
The Wall Street Journal picked up Harvard professor George Borjas’ study that shows how the employment gap for hiring illegal aliens over native born American workers has increased dramatically in the last twenty years. The study suggests that the reason for this is that while American workers would do the jobs they are not willing to work for below average living wages.
The Justice Department announced a settlement agreement with Barrios Street Realty Inc. concerning claims that the Lockport, Louisiana-based company discriminated against Americans by hiring foreign H-2B workers. Of the settlement, a department spokesperson Gupta said, “Federal law prohibits employers from discriminating against U.S. workers in hiring.
A recent NPR article shows the growing trend of agricultural employers turning to H-2A foreign visa workers in an effort to avoid negotiating wages with American workers. This arrangement saves employers money and gives them complete control of the workers.
The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) released a report showing that there is no evidence to support the labor shortage claims made by companies that advocate for an increase in H-2B visas. Key findings in the report show that companies save multiple dollars per hour by hiring lower-paid H-2B workers.
The left-leaning BuzzFeed News and right-leaning Breitbart News are producing essential reporting about the little-known world of nonimmigrant guest worker programs.
Center for Immigration Studies Director of Research, Steven Camarota, used wage data provided by the American Community Survey (ACS) conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau, as evidence that there is no labor shortage in H-2B visa occupations, which were increased in the recently passed omnibus spending bill.
Immigration does “grow the economy” and highly-skilled immigrants do contribute more in taxes than they receive in direct government services (education, healthcare, entitlements, etc.). It would be very difficult to find an economist who disagreed with the above statement.
Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., yesterday warned that the omnibus appropriations bill would quadruple a foreign worker program replacing Americans, expand the refugee program amid serious national security threats, and ignore the existence of dangerous Sanctuary Cities.
NumbersUSA sent out the following message last night to all Members of Congress, notifying them that we will score against the omnibus spending bill because of a provision that could potentially quadruple H-2B low-skilled worker visas in 2016 and its full funding, including Pres. Obama's proposed expansion, of the refugee resettlement program.
