4/9/15, "America needs to curb immigration flows," Washington Post, Sen. Jeff Sessions op-ed. "Jeff Sessions, a Republican from Alabama, is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s immigration subcommittee."
The first “great wave” of U.S. immigration took place from roughly 1880 to 1930. During this time, according to the Census Bureau,
the foreign-born population doubled from about 6.7 million to 14.2
million people. Changes were then made to immigration law to reduce
admissions, decreasing the foreign-born population until it fell to
about 9.6 million by 1970. Meanwhile, during this low-immigration
period, real median compensation for U.S. workers surged, increasing
more than 90 percent from 1948 to 1973, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
In
the 1960s, Congress lifted immigration caps and ushered in a “second
great wave.” The foreign-born population more than quadrupled, to more
than 40 million today.
This ongoing wave coincides with a period of middle-class contraction. The Pew Research Center reports:
“The share of adults who live in middle-income households has eroded
over time, from 61% in 1970 to 51% in 2013.” Harvard economist George Borjas
has estimated that high immigration from 1980 to 2000 reduced the wages
of lower-skilled U.S. workers by 7.4 percent — a stunning drop — with
particularly painful reductions for African American workers. Weekly
earnings today are lower than they were in 1973.
Yet
each year, the United States adds another million mostly low-wage
permanent legal immigrants who can work, draw benefits and become voting
citizens. Legal immigration is the primary source of low-wage
immigration into the United States. In other words, as a matter of
federal policy — which can be adjusted at any time — millions of
low-wage foreign workers are legally made available to substitute for
higher-paid Americans.
This federal policy continues at a time when robotics and computerization are slashing demand for workers. One Oxford University professor estimates
that as many as half of all jobs will be automated in 20 years. We
don’t have enough jobs for our lower-skilled workers now. What sense
does it make to bring in millions more?
If no immigration curbs are enacted, the Census Bureau estimates
that another 14 million immigrants will come to the United States
between now and 2025. That means we will introduce a new population
almost four times larger than that of Los Angeles in just 10 years time.
The
percentage of the country that is foreign-born is on track to rapidly
eclipse any previous historical peak and to continue rising. Imagine the
pressure this will put on wages, as well as schools, hospitals and many
other community resources.
It is not mainstream, but extreme, to continue surging immigration beyond any historical precedent and to do so at a time when almost 1 in 4 Americans age 25 to 54 does not have a job. What we need now is immigration moderation:
slowing the pace of new arrivals so that wages can rise, welfare rolls
can shrink and the forces of assimilation can knit us all more closely
together.
But high immigration rates help
the financial elite (and the political elite who receive their
contributions) by keeping wages down and profits up. For them, what’s
not to like? That is why they have tried to enforce silence in the face
of public desire for immigration reductions. They have sought to
intimidate good and decent Americans into avoiding honest discussion of
how uncontrolled immigration impacts their lives.
But that dam is breaking. The elite consensus is crumbling — and the enforced silence on this critical issue will end." via Free Rep.
.
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