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Enforcement of Immigration Laws Benefits the Economy
Guest Column | By Michael Cutler | November 4, 2009
I don't know how many times I have said that, contrary to what our nation's "leaders" say, immigration is not a single issue but is, in fact, a major factor in nearly every critical challenge confronting our nation today. Politicians may well decry the arrest of illegal aliens, but the immigration laws of this nation were promulgated with the intention of protecting our nation and our citizens from aliens whose presence in the United States is harmful to our citizens and our nation.
It is interesting that this Washington Times article begins with a quote by President Obama:
"If somebody can show me a strategy that's going to work, then we are happy to consider it," the president said before a White House meeting with the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board.
Isn't amazing that after billions of dollars were supposedly pumped into the economy to get the economy moving, the President is concerned that jobs will continue to be lost? What was the point to the economic stimulus program that has mortgaged our children's and our grandchildren's economic futures?
Here is my prescription for an effective strategy: Hire many more special agents for ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and order the special agents of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) to arrest and detain illegal aliens working in violation of law in the United States and seek their removal from our country.
Mandate that E-Verify be made permanent and then move to include a biometric component to the program to combat the use of stolen identities by illegal aliens. This would also go a long way to combat identity theft, the white collar crime that has been identified as being the fastest growing white collar crime in the United States.
Finally, have ICE special agents conduct field investigations into the massive number of fraud applications that are filed in conjunction with the immigration benefits program and go after companies and attorneys who engage in conspiracies to provide aliens with H-1b visas for so-called "High Tech" jobs.
Here is a link to a video of a covertly taped conference on June 16, 2007, in which a law firm ran a seminar that instructed other lawyers on the way that the immigration process could be subverted to make certain that qualified United States citizens and lawful immigrants would not be hired - so foreign workers would get those jobs:
The video - which I guarantee will set your blood boiling - was posted on YouTube by the Programmer Guild with the following description:
Immigration attorneys from Cohen & Grigsby explains how they assist employers in running classified ads with the goal of NOT finding any qualified applicants, and the steps they go through to disqualify even the most qualified Americans in order to secure green cards for H-1b workers. See what Bush and Congress really mean by a "shortage of skilled U.S. workers." Microsoft, Oracle, Hewlett-Packard, and thousands of other companies are running fake ads in Sunday newspapers across the country each week.
The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) lists aliens who should be excluded from the United States and also lists those categories of aliens who should be removed from our country if they were excludible when they entered our country or if they violate the terms of admission under which they were permitted to enter the United States. In addition to aliens being excludible or deportable from the United States for having dangerous communicable diseases, having been convicted of committing felonies, being associated with terrorist organizations and a list of other such reasons, is the category of aliens who work in the United States without permission.
This last category of excludible and/or deportable aliens (those who work illegally) poses a threat to the jobs of the citizens and lawful resident aliens of our country. (It is also worth noting that in this post 9/11 world, terrorists often seek commonplace jobs that provide them with the ability to embed themselves in the United States and thus "hide in plain sight.")
The issue of foreign workers taking the jobs of Americans was of such concern that prior to World War II, immigration laws were enforced and administered by the Labor Department.
Today, many of our nation's politicians are fixated on facilitating the entry of millions of aliens - legal and illegal - to curry favor with deep pocketed individuals and corporations.
I would like you to consider what Alan Greenspan had to say when he testified before the Senate Immigration Subcommittee on April 30, 2009 at a hearing that was convened by the chairman of that subcommittee, Chuck Schumer. The title of the hearing was, "Comprehensive Immigration Reform, Can We Do It and How?"
Let me share with you my reaction to his testimony. The labor market, in many areas, has a finite need for workers. If most or all of the needs for employees are being met by foreign workers, legal and illegal, who will accept lower wages than their U.S. citizen and resident alien counterparts, the vast majority of employers will simply hire the foreign workers who will accept lower wages and not even consider hiring American workers even if they possess the sort of education that would make them suitable employees.
This, in turn, makes many of the "high tech" professions less attractive. What incentives are their for bright American college students to devote years of their lives to a course of study, often at great financial expense, if the salaries that the profession for which they are studying will not provide them with salaries that are commensurate with their expenditure of time, effort and money?
I think the answer to the question I asked was answered in an obscure manner by Greenspan. Consider this quote from his testimony:
The second bonus would address the increasing concentration of income in this country. Greatly expanding our quotas for the highly skilled would lower wage premiums of skilled over lesser skilled. Skill shortages in America exist because we are shielding our skilled labor force from world competition. Quotas have been substituted for the wage pricing mechanism. In the process, we have created a privileged elite whose incomes are being supported at noncompetitively high levels by immigration quotas on skilled professionals. Eliminating such restrictions would reduce at least some of our income inequality.
As you read the preceding paragraph, I want you to stop and think about what he is really saying. It would certainly appear that his point is that by not bringing in more foreign workers, skilled workers are able to earn more money than unskilled workers.
What is wrong with that? Should a person who lacks an education and a trade earn the same money as someone who has a specific skill or education? He talks about a "privileged elite whose incomes are being supported at noncompetitively high levels by immigration quotas on skilled professionals." He ends that paragraph by saying, "Eliminating such restrictions would reduce at least some of our income inequality."
To what "income inequality" is Mr. Greenspan referring?
I can assure you that Mr. Greenspan was not discussing the CEOs of corporations who now earn as much as 400 times as much as those who are employed by their companies. He certainly did not discuss the so-called "Golden Parachutes."
Mr. Greenspan concealed his insidious perspectives in language that obfuscated his beliefs. His goal is clear: if the United States would open up its borders to an unlimited flow of aliens, both legal and illegal, labor costs could be driven down and profits for corporations would be driven up.
It would almost appear that Mr. Greenspan believes that anyone who is not a CEO or high-ranking member of management should be earning little more than minimum wage, including those Americans who are highly skilled and even possess college degrees.
Traditionally, the middle class was comprised of those people who made economic progress by acquiring skills and education. This is what the "American Dream" was all about.
I return to my original premise and ask: how serious is the President about creating new jobs for Americans?
There's an old expression: "A penny saved is a penny earned." You could change that saying to read, "A job freed up from a foreign worker is as good as a created job for a United States citizen."
If our government were to go back to the traditional concept of preventing foreign workers from taking the jobs Americans sorely want to have, our nation would be able to put more Americans back to work.
There would be an additional benefit to be gained by hiring American citizens and lawful immigrants to consider: The goal of foreign workers is to send as much money that they earn back to their families in their home countries. Each year, tens of billions of dollars are wired or otherwise transmitted from the United States to the countries from whence the foreign workers (legal and illegal) came. I have seen estimates that claim that more than $100 billion is sent out of our country by foreign workers. This is money that is not spent or invested in the United States, which would in turn create more jobs. When money leaves our economy, additional jobs are also removed from our nation's economy.
It is nothing short of common sense to understand that freeing up jobs through the effective enforcement of the immigration laws is anything but "anti-American," as some politicians have alleged.
It is time that Secretary of Homeland Security require that ICE agents not only seek to penalize the unscrupulous employers who intentionally hire illegal aliens but that the illegal aliens that are located during the course of these investigations be arrested and removed from the United States.
Let me also make something else as clear as I know how: The enforcement of the immigration laws is not about racism. Illegal aliens come from virtually every country on this planet. Illegal aliens are of every ethnicity and religion. Americans and lawful immigrants, who are losing their jobs and are unemployed or underemployed, are also of every ethnicity imaginable. This is not about race - this is about law. As an INS special agent I was concerned with just two categories of people - individuals who were citizens of the United States and individuals who were aliens.
The enforcement of the immigration laws is not about race or religion or ethnicity - it is purely about the law.
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Michael Cutler is a Fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies and a well-respected authority on immigration and border security issues.
Guest columns do not necessarily reflect the views of Accuracy in Media or its staff.
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