Voters Think Focus Of Immigration Policy Should Be Protecting American Workers

by Bill Smith, Editor, ARRA News: A "Sam Adams" source inside the U.S. Senate shared with the ARRA News service a new Polling report released by Kellyanne Conway, President & CEO of The Polling Company, inc./WomanTrend. The report revealed that 57 percent of voters now say immigration is their item of greatest concern or among their top three items of greatest concern.

Among all voters, there is broad and deep agreement that the focus of US immigration policy should be fairness for working Americans. They believe businesses should improve wages, and recruit the unemployed, instead of suppressing wages by bringing in more labor from abroad. In short, after decades of record immigration, voters of all backgrounds want to see a profound redirection of US immigration policy towards the needs of current US workers. It represents the latest and most absolute repudiation yet of the Senate / White House immigration bill, which doubled future immigration rates.

It also underscores that the words “immigration reform” often obscure more than they reveal – voters’ idea of how to reform our immigration laws represents the complete opposite of what the Gang of Eight and President Obama both propose. They want an immigration policy that serves them – not borderless multinationals.

This new poll also was released on the same day as a report from the National Employment Law Project demonstrating the continued decline in workers’ wages. CBS News writes: "real median hourly wages have declined across low, middle and high income levels from 2009 through 2013…No matter if workers were in the lowest bracket ($8.84 to $10.85 an hour) or the highest ($31.40 to $86.34), median hourly wages declined when you take into account the impact of inflation. So while your utilities and grocery bills continue to rise, your take-home pay, in real dollars, may not be going as far as it had before the recession. Across all occupations, real median hourly wages slipped 3.4 percent since 2009…"

Highlights from the poll follow:

• 77% of respondents said jobs should go to current US-born workers or legal immigrants already in the country – instead of bringing in new immigrants to fill those jobs.
• 88% of conservatives, 78% of moderates, 78% of independents, 71% of democrats and 62% of liberals say current US workers should get jobs preference
• 90% of Likely Voters believe that U.S. - born workers and legal immigrants already here should get first preference for jobs.
• 80% of respondents said businesses should recruit the currently unemployed instead of expanding the labor supply with new workers from other countries
• 86% of black voters, 73% of white voters and 71% of Hispanic voters said companies should raise wages and improve working conditions instead of increasing immigration
• 76% of respondents said people who overstayed their visas should be encouraged to repatriate (side note here: as many as 4 in 10 people unlawfully present in the United States are actually visa overstays; the President’s DACA work permit program applies to visa overstays and his planned executive action does as well, while the Senate bill provides citizenship to people who fail to depart when their visa expires and also allows them to obtain work permits and green cards for their relatives overseas)
• Over 66% of likely voters agree that the U.S. should deny illegal immigrants jobs and welfare benefits to encourage their return back to their home countries - including 64% of union members and 48% of Hispanics.
• 75% respondents oppose the President taking any kind of unilateral executive action
• 75% respondents wished to see substantial reductions in immigration rates

Consider the above finding in the context of present policy:
The US currently provides green cards to an additional 1 million permanent residents each year (who are eventually able to attain citizenship) in addition to about 700,000 temporary guest workers and 200,000 relatives of those guest workers. The inflow of guest workers includes a large number of STEM workers that are displacing American STEM-trained college graduates and recent immigrants. Since the year 2000, the US has issued nearly 30 million visas for permanent immigrants or temporary guest workers. As reported by the Pew Research Center, the total number of immigrants in the U.S. has eclipsed a record 40 million. The share of the U.S. population that was born in another country, per the Census Bureau, has quadrupled.

According to Harvard labor economist Dr. George Borjas, high immigration rates during the last two decades of the 20th century reduced wages for lower-skilled U.S. workers by more than 7 percent.

Consider, then, this fact: President Obama, every single Senate Democrat, and virtually every House Democrat has endorsed legislation to double the rate of permanent immigration into the United States and double the admission of temporary guest workers. Massively expanding the labor supply would, of course, mean yet lower wages and higher unemployment (as CBO confirmed) – including for immigrant workers living here today hoping to see their pay rise and their financial dreams realized.

Recommend reading Civil Rights Commission Member Peter Kirsanow’s letter to the President about how this executive amnesty would be disastrous for black workers in the United States.

However, President Obama indicates that he wants to immediately add another 5 million illegal immigrants to the legal workforce through an executive action.
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Note: Sam Adams is the pen name for un-named beltway sources. While receiving information from many sources, this Sam's source need to be credited. Thanks to all the Adams patriots who speak up for America.

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