On this July Fourth, we should focus on their needs.
The chaos unfolding at
the border demonstrates the catastrophic, real-world consequences of the
president’s lawless conduct. For the last five years, with average household
incomes falling and Americans being pushed out of the workforce, the
president has been engaged in a sustained campaign to strip away Americans’
immigration protections. He has accomplished his aims: Interior removals have
been cut by more than 40 percent. President Obama’s own former ICE director
reported to the Los Angeles Times that “if you are a run-of-the-mill
immigrant here illegally, your odds of getting deported are close to zero.”
There
is no doubt that the president’s lawlessness has now produced a humanitarian
crisis. But more important — and much too little discussed — is the crisis he
has produced for the American citizens and communities who are left with the
tab. Washington has profoundly failed in its lawful duty to the American
people.
We owe our first
obligation to the citizens of this country, and yet the last year has been
consumed by an immigration debate centered on the needs of immigration
lobbyists and politicians. The ultimate expression of this failure of
priorities was the Senate’s immigration bill. During a time of low wages, high
unemployment, and surging welfare rolls, the Senate bill doubled the existing
and expansive rate of legal immigrant and guest-worker admissions into the U.S.
The
U.S. already has the world’s most generous immigration policy. The size of the
country’s foreign-born population has quadrupled since 1970. Harvard
professor George Borjas estimated that high immigration rates from 1980 to 2000
resulted in a 7.4 percent wage reduction for lower-skilled American
workers. And from the years 2000 through 2013, according to a Congressional
Research Service report, the U.S. lawfully issued another 26 million
visas to foreign workers and new permanent immigrants. The Center for
Immigration Studies issued a study based on Census data showing that “since
2000 all of the net gain in the number of working-age (16 to 65) people holding
a job has gone to immigrants.”
Meanwhile,
further demonstrating that there is a large surplus of labor, incomes and wages
are down. The Wall Street Journal reports that “median household income
was $50,017 in 2012, below 2007’s peak level of $55,627, after adjusting for
inflation, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.” At the same time, the number
of Americans between the ages of 16 and 65 who are not working has
grown to 58 million. If mass immigration is so good for the economy, why then —
during this long sustained period of record immigration into the U.S. — are
incomes falling and a record number of Americans not working?
On
this July Fourth, it is time to focus squarely on the needs of the American
people who have given their blood and sweat to deliver us this magnificent
Republic.
For
instance:
Stop promoting amnesty. Instead, send a clear message to the
world: If you attempt to come here unlawfully, you will be sent home. And send
a message to our neighbors in Latin America: If you do not accept repatriation
of your citizens who entered unlawfully, you will not be provided any more
legal-immigrant visas.Protect the workplace. Protect the jobs and wages of lawful
residents. This can be done by expanding, as previously planned, the effective
and easy-to-use workplace verification tool known as E-Verify, used to confirm
a job applicant’s legal status. Senate Democrats have blocked this
measure.Remove the tax-credit magnet. According to the IRS inspector
general, in 2010 the U.S. improperly paid out $4.2 billion in taxpayer money to
illegal immigrants in the form of the additional child tax credits — often to
support children who are not even living in the United States. We can end this
practice by simply requiring a valid Social Security number, as the IRS
inspector general has recommended. Senate Democrats have blocked this measure,
too.Help our unemployed get back to work. With a record 58 million
working-age Americans not working, we need to get our people off unemployment,
off welfare, and into good-paying jobs that can support a family. Doubling the
already large and continuing flow of legal immigration, as the Senate bill
proposed, clearly works against this goal.Create the conditions for rising wages. It is the job of lawmakers
to represent all citizens, not just the denizens of Wall Street and Silicon
Valley, and certainly not the narrow financial interests of international
corporations with facilities spread across the globe. As long as we provide
employers with an ever-increasing supply of low-wage workers from abroad,
American wages are not going to rise. If a job is tough, or difficult, or in
high demand, why shouldn’t wages go up?Challenge the president’s lawlessness. The president made clear
with his Monday announcement on executive actions that he plans to go even
further in not enforcing America’s immigration laws. Congress simply has no
choice but to use its substantial constitutional powers to confront the
president’s lawlessness. And if the Senate Democratic majority continues to
empower this illegality, then they should be exposed publicly and held to
account for doing so. To violate even further his constitutional requirement to
enforce the law – regardless of what other measures are taken – will
ensure that the border crisis continues.
The
immigration vision of President Obama and his congressional allies provides
benefits for various CEOs, amnesty activists, and the citizens of other
countries — but it offers nothing for American citizens besides lower wages and
higher unemployment.
After
decades of open immigration and lawless borders, it has become clear that it is
time for a new immigration focus: one centered on the just and legitimate
interests of the American people. The
Americans who bravely fight our wars, dutifully pay their taxes, and live their
whole lives by the rules have every right to expect and demand that their
representatives act faithfully on their behalf. Let that be our resolve on this
July Fourth.
— Jeff Sessions is the ranking member of the Senate Budget
Committee and a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee
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