Newsletter: 17 million Americans want work this Labor Day

The Trump administration could undo the border crisis by the end of President Trump’s term. 

The Center for Immigration Studies published new estimates this week showing a 2.3 million decline in the illegal immigrant population since President Trump took office. 

Although interior arrests reached record highs in each of the last two months, most of the decline is people returning home on their own. And the departures are concentrated among non-workers.

It appears the calculation has changed for non-working illegal aliens. More and more are deciding that remaining in the United States is no longer worth the cost and are making their own plans to return home.

But the benefits of illegal work are keeping millions more anchored to their illegal presence.

The departure of non-workers takes pressure off of taxpayers and schools. But American workers would benefit far more if we could take the next step: focus more attention on illegal hiring.

Mandatory E-Verify would accelerate self removals, discourage future illegal immigration, and crack down on the illegal hiring that deprives Americans of wealth, wages, and opportunities.

Historical Blip, or Lasting Legacy?

The drop in the illegal population is the result of administrative policies to secure the border and enforce immigration in the interior. Those policies can disappear at the end of the administration.

Only Congress can determine whether these gains will be a lasting legacy or merely a historical anomaly. It’s their job to make them permanent.

The House of Representatives does not expect to hold any votes over the last two weeks of September. In other words, the House has just one week left in Washington before the midterms. 

The Citizen lobby, on the other hand, never takes a day off.

How Congress Can Truly Honor Labor Day

On Monday, the nation will pause in honor of American labor. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics report this morning:

• 7.0 million Americans are unemployed and looking for work
• 4.4 million are working part-time because they can’t get full-time employment, and 
• 5.7 million want a job but have given up looking. 

That’s 17 million people, more than the population of Pennsylvania. And the pool of prime-working-age Americans not in the labor force is much larger still.

Our immigration policy should recognize these Americans, and the millions more whose wages have stagnated in the mass immigration wave of the last fifty years. 

How Not to Honor Labor Day

A bipartisan group of Representatives is threatening to force a floor vote on the American Dream and Promise Act (H.R. 1589). The bill would grant permanent work permits and a path to citizenship to millions here illegally and/or on “Temporary Protected Status,” which expanded rapidly during the border crisis.

The bill would also retroactively forgive employers who exploited illegal labor, while providing nothing to American workers who have been harmed by illegal immigration and TPS abuse. 

They are just one signature away from forcing a vote. Seven representatives (six Democrats and one Republican) signed the discharge petition this week, bringing the total to 217 – just one short of the 218 required.

These 217 are choosing rewards for illegal labor over better opportunities for millions of Americans who want to work. See if your representative is one of them.

Spotlight on Birthright & Sanctuaries

The House held hearings this week on two policies that have helped reward illegal immigration: birthright citizenship and sanctuary policies. We posted clips on our @NumbersUSA feed. At the link, you can also see our new video on Birthright Citizenship.

Bad Ideas

Congress isn’t short on terrible ideas. Here’s one that picked up 10 new cosponsors this week:

• Indefinitely grant amnesty to illegal aliens who can manage to stay in the country illegally for seven years. (H.R. 4696)

See: Bill Tracker

Great Ideas

There are a few great ideas in Congress. Here’s one that picked up two new signatures this week to set a new cosponsor record for “The Nuclear Family Priority Act”:

• Limit family-based green cards to spouses and minor children, therefore ending chain migration and stabilizing immigration at a level we can sustain. (H.R. 2705)

See: Great Solutions

NumbersUSA In The News

On The Bill Martinez Show, my colleague Andre Barnes discussed the 1992 Los Angeles riots and the years of job displacement that preceded them. (51:30–1:05:35)

Andre also joined the Dana With The Data podcast for a deep dive into Barbara Jordan’s overlooked immigration legacy, Black leadership then and now, and the policies we need to stop the theft of American wages and wealth. (Part I; Part II; Part III)

And I joined Stacy on the Right on SiriusXM to discuss the latest illegal immigration numbers. (interview starts at 1:35:20)

This Week In Immigration History

Sept 5, 1882 — First Labor Day parade, New York City. The first Labor Day holiday was celebrated in New York City, organized by the Central Labor Union. The date was chosen to coincide with the opening of a Knights of Labor convention in New York. Annual immigration had increased from 170,000 in 1876 to 789,000 in 1882 – a record high at the time. Fourteen years later, the Knights of Labor joined the American Federation of Labor in endorsing a bill to dramatically reduce the flow of foreign workers. (Back of the Hiring Line, Chapters 3-4)