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The Washington
Times: Protecting American workers during the immigration debate
By Rick Santorum
For the past decade, perhaps the one issue that has crossed partisan
lines yet created a national divide is our nation's immigration policy.
And now that President Obama has issued an executive order granting
amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants, we have to discuss how this
impacts American workers.
Those on the left stand for open borders and amnesty because they
believe national borders discriminate against the poor in the world,
and they are counting on the new immigrants providing the Democrat
Party with an expanding base of voters.
The corporate community has advocated amnesty because new immigrants
will work for less while increasing their bottom line. Big Business
sees immigrants and existing U.S. citizens as a commodity whose price
needs to be kept down.
But in between these two forces are average Americans who have borne
the brunt of this economic recession with stagnant wages and a decline
in median income. Under our current immigration system and de facto
amnesty for existing illegal aliens (this administration simply doesn't
deport anyone unless they have committed another serious crime in the
U.S.) we have flooded America with competition for our lower-skilled
workers...
However we solve this challenge, we should agree that the interest of
the American worker comes first. As former Congresswoman Barbara Jordan
(D-Tex.) said when she chaired President Bill Clinton's U.S. Commission
on Immigration Reform: "It is both a right and a responsibility of a
democratic society to manage immigration so that it serves the national
interest. The national interest comes first, last, and always."...
We also know something else has happened during this unprecedented wave
of legal immigrants. There have been roughly six million net new jobs
created. On balance, how many of those new jobs have gone to
native-born workers?
None! All of the net-job gains since 2000 have gone to workers born
outside the US....
To read the full article, click here
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