Congress to Fund ‘100 Percent’ of Obama’s Immigration Priorities,
Obama Administration
Approves 3 Million New Immigrant Workers in One Year
(Free Beacon) – At
least 3 million foreign nationals were granted work permits, work visas,
and green cards in 2013, with most being granted to individuals from Mexico,
China, and India, according to the most recent data issued by the
Congressional Research Service.
While the 2014 numbers
have not been disclosed, recent statistics provided to Congress reveal that
work permits continued to be issued at record numbers, according to
congressional sources and statistics provided to the Washington Free
Beacon.
This includes about 1
million green cards with work authorization, 1 million employment-based
nonimmigrant visas for foreign workers, and 1.2 million work-permit
authorizations for foreign nationals.
The disclosure of the
ongoing uptick in visas and green cards comes amid a larger debate on Capitol
Hill about tightening immigration restrictions in light of recent terror
attacks and concerns about the U.S. workforce.
The total number of
foreign workers in the United States stands at 26 million as of 2014, according
to numbers issued by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“All foreign nationals
who gain lawful permanent resident status in the United States are eligible to
work, regardless of what preference category or class they entered through,”
according to a congressional research memo obtained by the Free Beacon.
These numbers are
likely to increase in the next year as Congress prepares to approve a sprawling
funding bill that critics say will do little to alter Obama administration
plans to boost work permits and visas, as well as permit some 10,000 Syrian
refugees to relocate to America.
“The omnibus will fund
100 percent of the continued issuance of work permits, work visas, green cards
and refugee admits, continuing to accelerate the U.S. beyond all known
historical immigration precedent,” said a congressional source familiar
with the yearly spending bill. “The U.S. presently has four times more
migrant residents than any other country in the world, regardless of
population.”
The U.S. immigrant
population—both legal and illegal—hit a “record” 42.4 million in 2014, according
to the Center for Immigration Studies.
Congressional critics,
among them Sen. Jeff Sessions (R., Ala.), have criticized the funding bill for
giving the Obama administration a “blank check” on the immigration front.
“As currently written,
this year’s appropriations bills … amount to a blank check for the president to
carry out his refugee resettlement plans,” Sessions said in a recent
statement.
“Not only will the
president be allowed to bring in the 85,000 refugees he has announced on top of
current record immigration levels, but this will include at least 10,000
refugees from Syria who will subsequently be able to bring in their foreign
relatives,” Sessions said, noting that all of the refugees “are eligible for
lifetime government assistance and can draw funds from Social Security and
Medicare at Americans’ expense.”
More than 90 percent
of recent Middle Eastern refugees who have come to America are on welfare,
according to Sessions.
The U.S. Census Bureau
“projects that, on our current immigration policy baseline, every single year
the total number of immigrants in the United States will increase, the annual
rate of immigrant admissions will increase, and the foreign-born share of the
population will increase,” according to information published by Sessions’
office.
Additional polling
data collected by Pew shows that 83 percent of the public would like the level
of immigration frozen or reduced, including at least 92 percent of Republicans
polled.
Sessions has further
warned that the costs associated with resettling refugees and providing them
welfare benefits have not been offset.
“The net cost of
resettling 10,000 refugees averages out to $6.5 billion over the lifespan of
those refugees,” Sessions wrote in a recent letter to congressional
appropriators. “The president’s proposal to resettle 85,000 refugees this
fiscal year alone will result in a net cost of approximately $55.25 billion.
On the work permit
front, non-Middle Eastern immigrants account for the largest percentage of
foreign nationals in the workforce, according to labor statistics.
“Hispanics accounted
for 48.3 percent of the foreign-born labor force in 2014 and Asians accounted
for 24.1 percent,” according to the most recent numbers.
Lawmakers are further
seeking to boost background screenings for new immigrants. One such measure
being considered by the Senate would mandate that the Department of
Homeland Security and the FBI, among others, review an individual’s social
media accounts to see if there are links to terrorists.
The State
Department was recently sued for withholding information from the
public about the administration’s refugee resettlement plan.
Homeland
Security has had difficulty providing Congress with concrete
statistics on the number of Syrians currently in the United States and of those
how many are in the country on expired visas.
http://freebeacon.com/national-security/obama-approves-3-million-immigrant-workers/
http://www.teaparty.org/congress-fund-100-percent-obamas-immigration-priorities-134620/
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