DEFENDERS & DESERTERS of JOBLESS AMERICANS: We name the '50 Worst Deserters' Today

Updated: July 6th, 2023, 3:06 pm

Published:  

  by  Roy Beck

It was a tough job to pick the 50 Members of Congress who over the last two years have shown the most callous indifference to the suffering of unemployed American households, in terms of immigration policies.

As bad as Congress has been on immigration in the past, it seemed to just grow more fond of foreign labor the last two years as jobs prospects for unemployed Americans grew more and more dismal.

Consider the results of NumbersUSA calculating grades based on every vote and co-sponsorship of the last two years:

  • 42% of the 535 Members earned a NumbersUSA grade of D+ or LOWER for their actions
  • 25% earned an F or F-minus, with most of them getting a 0%.

During the last two years of a virtual jobs depression, these Worst 50 led Congress:

  •  in allowing the addition of another 75,000 permanent working-age immigrants every MONTH
  • and in allowing about 7 million illegal foreign workers to keep their jobs in construction, service, manufacturing and transportation.

Recent government data show that 22 million U.S. workers who want a job can’t find one. But these 50 Members of Congress deserted those Americans in favor of increasing the number of foreign workers competing with them in the hiring line.

All 50 “Deserters” on this list:

  • received grades of F-minus and 0%, failing to take a single action to reduce competition for jobless Americans.
  • are asking voters to re-elect them to Congress this November
  • are in the Senate or in the House where they are leaders with special opportunity to influence policy toward jobless Americans because they either are congressional chairmen, leaders of their Party or on the Judiciary Committee with direct jurisdiction over immigration.

It isn't that these 50 don't have concerns for the unemployed.  In fact, most of them have worked hard to provide unemployment benefits and other government assistance to help them while they are out of work.

But they seem to prefer providing unemployment assistance to providing them access to jobs.

When it comes to immigration, these 50  are willing to keep their unemployed constituents out of work. 

For whatever variety of reasons, these 50 elected officials favor foreign workers and the employers that hire them over the desires of their own constituents to have a job and support themselves.

I'm sure all of these 50 will be campaigning this fall about their great concern for putting their constituents back to work. Citizens can no longer allow them to perpetuate their charade. 

50 WORST DESERTERS of JOBLESS AMERICANS (In the Face of Unfair Foreign-Worker Competition) 

In the Senate

In the House

NumbersUSA is aggressively non-partisan.  We do not cherry-pick actions to grade in order to skew the results.  Instead, we rate every action in committee or the floor and all co-sponsorships that would change the numerical level of immigration. Our grades reflect the cumulative effect of each Members' actions in terms of increasing or reducing the number of foreign workers (legal and illegal) in the country.

All actions and the computerized grading calculations are displayed in our www.CongressGrades.org section of our website.

Those in Congress who do the most to protect American workers in terms of immigration policies receive an A+, while those doing the least receive an F-minus.

NumbersUSA has more than one million activist members.  It was formed in 1996 in part to carry out the recommendations of the bi-partisan U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform (chaired by the late Barbara Jordan) which opposed immigration policies that depress wages and job prospects for the most vulnerable Americans.

ROY BECK is Founder & CEO of NumbersUSA

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America's Jobless