On June 10, 2011, Roy was a guest on CSPAN's "Washington Journal" to discuss immigration. Roy discussed the various state laws and the potential for a national E-Verify law, population growth, and the fiscal costs of mass immigration.
A new Brookings report brags about all the college graduates that our immigration policy is adding into the U.S. worker pool, but the latest unemployment statistics show nothing but bad news for our own American college graduates. At the end of the first quarter, this was the percentage of young adult American college grads (age 21-29) who wanted a full-time job but couldn't find one . . . .
Amid a new round of politically charged rhetoric about illegal immigration, a divided Yakima City Council narrowly reversed itself Tuesday and approved the use of E-Verify over the objection of Hispanic community leaders.
The council voted 4-3 to require that contractors who do business with the city must verify the legal status of their employees by using the controversial federal employment-screening database.
Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld Arizona's mandatory E-Verify law, the press should turn its attention to reporting what actually happens when states require employers to verify the work eligibility of their new hires. Until now, most of the coverage has been focused on hypotheticals and "fears" of what mandatory E-Verify might do, rather than what it does do.
The Supreme Court has overturned a lower court's ruling that stopped a Hazleton, Pa. city ordinance requiring businesses to use E-Verify. The ordinance, signed by former mayor and current Congressman Lou Barletta, prohibits business owners from knowingly hire illegal aliens and prevents landlords from renting to illegal aliens.
The errors in National Public Radio's coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court's 5-3 decision to uphold Arizona's E-Verify law were so blatant and verifiable that the segment would have made a good candidate for one of NPR's famous April Fools Day reports. But the falsehoods that listeners heard in the "All Things Considered" segment are no joke. There has been no correction in the story online, which would indicate no one within the organization caught the errors.
A new poll conducted by Rasmussen Reports found that 82% of likely voters think businesses should be required to use E-Verify. The poll also found that 61% of likely voters would favor a state law that shuts down businesses that repeatedly hire illegal workers.
Mayor Dave Bing of Detroit was asked what he thought of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's suggestion that new flows of immigration to Detroit would revitalize the city. Mayor Bing made it clear that the problems in Detroit don't stem from a shortage in the labor force, but rather a shortage of jobs.
The Louisiana State Senate overwhelmingly passed a bill that would require state contractors to use E-Verify. The bill passed by a 34-to-1 margin. It now heads to the House for consideration.
The increasing editorial page assaults on Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) for pursuing an enforcement strategy as the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee rely on their solid belief that the only reason 7 million illegal aliens hold jobs is because unemployed Americans refused to take them. The Washington Post's ivory tower residents are shocked that Chairman Smith would try to push the illegal aliens out of their jobs. . . .
A new report from the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University has some discouraging news for young Americans graduating from college this spring. But instead of trying to help recent college graduates find work, Pres. Obama proposes flooding the job market with more foreign workers.
While America's kids prepare for their college graduation events, Pres. Obama laid out an immigration blueprint in El Paso for making it much more difficult for them to find jobs. When it comes to unemployed Americans, Pres. Obama always gives higher priority to foreign workers.
Detroit, Michigan has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country. Earlier this year, it ranked No. 15 on Forbes' list of the 20 most miserable cities in America. The Motor City needs a boost and Michigan Governor Rick Snyder and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg both believe immigration can provide it. But does anyone seriously think that more immigrants can cure Detroit's 30 percent unemployment rate?
Two enterprising Reuters reporters tracked down a few of the recently-fired illegal Chipotle restaurant workers who admitted that they committed identity theft and/or fraud to land a job at the fast-food chain. Since illegal employment and identity theft have been linked before, these confessions aren't surprising. What the fired workers told reporters next, however, is more newsworthy.
The government-shutdown crisis apparently is over but the search for more spending cuts will continue throughout the year. For two days this last week, I talked with radio hosts across the nation about the role of immigration policy in driving up government costs. Here's the key point that nearly all Members of Congress are missing as they insist on treating immigration policy as separate from their deficit debate: A lot of future government spending can be reduced by putting Americans back to work in jobs currently held by illegal aliens and in jobs that otherwise will go to new immigrants.
On Labor Day, a top union leader asked voters to "call out" corporations that ship jobs overseas. But how is that any more harmful to U.S. workers than when unions lobby to bring more foreign workers into this country to take more U.S. jobs?
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress on Wednesday that the Jobless Rate will likely stay above 7% for the remainder of Pres. Obama's first term. He said it will take a "significant amount of time" for the economy to create the 8.5 million jobs lost during the recession. However, current levels of legal immigration require the economy to create at least 125,000 new jobs every month just to keep up with the increases in population.
New jobless claims are again going up. I was asked by a reporter why I disagree with all the experts who say that immigration makes the economy bigger. My answer? "I agree that the economy will be bigger as you add immigrants, but what matters is what happens to individual Americans. And that effect for 25 years has been stagnant or declining real wages for the working-class occupations."
For all the talk in Congress about helping unemployed Americans and trying to hold the costs down on extension of unemployment benefits, I heard nothing about the huge extra amounts of benefits required because illegal aliens are allowed to hold 8 million jobs.
Journalist and blogger David Frum commented on a recent Washington Post blog that concludes it will take more than 11 years for the economy to generate the number of jobs needed to replace the jobs lost in the current recession and create jobs for the average population growth of 125,000 per month. Frum makes the connection that the Washington Post failed to make -- the population growth of 125,000 per month comes from current immigration policy.
Our new maps suggest that if a state wants an educated workforce that creates a strong middle class and high tax base, it might want to avoid high immigration. Who could have dreamed in 1970 that the states of Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas and Alabama would no longer be at the bottom and would have better educated workers than California, Texas, Nevada and Arizona after 40 years of high immigration there?
Democratic Leaders of the House Judiciary Committee plan a hearing for Wednesday to examine the "ethical imperative" of granting an amnesty and increasing the number of legal U.S. workers by millions. We will hope that other Democrats on the committee, as well as the Republicans will talk about the ethical imperative of putting unemployed Americans back to work.
Once again Pres. Obama has shown that he considers immigration to be primarily a game of political calculation rather than an issue that deeply affects how many millions of U.S. workers must remain unemployed. His renewed call for massive numbers of work permits for foreign workers is an incredible slap in the face to the 25 million Americans who want a full-time job but cannot find one. Let me pull out just a few of outrageous statements that the President made today and suggest you what they mean.
Pres. Obama delivered a 30-minute speech to approximately 250 Pro-Amnesty supporters at American University in Washington, D.C. today, calling for 'comprehensive immigration reform' with a mass amnesty. While the President addressed the need to bring 11-18 million illegal aliens "out of the shadows", he failed to address the impact of issuing that many permanent work permits on an economy that has more than 25 million U.S. citizens and legal immigrants looking for full-time work.
The Supreme Court is considering a review of Arizona's E-Verify law that passed in 2007 and requires all Arizona businesses to use the online workplace verification tool on new hires. According to a new op-ed from Reps. Lamar Smith and Todd Tiahrt, Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan was the driving force behind the Administration's decision to challenge the law.
Citizens in the city of Fremont, Neb. have voted to pass an immigration enforcement city ordinance that will prohibit the hiring and the renting of apartments to illegal aliens. The ordinance passed with 57% of the vote will likely face court challenges from opponents of the measure.
Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-Pa.) has teamed up with State Rep. John Galloway to urge the state senate into passing a mandatory E-Verify law. Two house bills would require all construction contractors to verity new hires through the E-Verify employment verification system. Rep. Galloway says there are approximately 35,000 illegal aliens working in the construction industry in Pennsylvania.
The Members of the Reclaim American Jobs Caucus sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder responding to a brief filed by the Justice Department urging the Supreme Court to review Arizona's E-Verify law. The law suspends the business license of any business that hires illegal aliens, but the Obama Administration believes the law oversteps federal authority.
The Department of Homeland Security’s continued commitment to E-Verify is apparent from the new E-Verify re-design, which will be launching on Sunday, June 12, 2010.
For the past five years I have been a full-time student, first receiving my B.A., then moving on to law school. With only two years left in law school and a serious amount of debt piling up, the thought of finding a job after I receive my J.D. is constantly on my mind. Unfortunately, the Labor Department has reported that times have never been harder on Americans my age even though the federal government continues to import high levels of foreign workers.
Perhaps no opinion leader in America more defines true middle-ground, objective thinking about economic matters than nationally syndicated columnist Robert J. Samuelson. He simply does not fit in either left-wing or right-wing ideological camps, and his analysis is always based primarily on a clear-eyed view of hard data. On immigration, he also stands between the major camps. So, his latest comments on immigration are most interesting.
Senate Democrats drafting an Amnesty bill are developing the details to a new federal commission that would regulate the flow of legal foreign workers into the country. The commission would make recommendations to Congress based on worker demand and unemployment rates, and then Congress would vote to approve the adjusted levels.
A new report released by Congress' Joint Economic Committee says the unemployment rate since the start of the recession has been especially harsh among Hispanics because they are disproportionately represented in the job sectors that were hit the hardest.
Ranking Member of the House Immigration Subcommittee Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) is challenging the Obama Administration for its handling of worksite enforcement. In an op-ed released by Rep. King's office, the Congressman said the Administration is doing little to help America's unemployed and underemployed by not cracking down on illegal workers.
A new report from the Kansas City Star covers the impact increased enforcement efforts and the recession have had on illegal immigration. According to the story, not only are illegal aliens heading home, but they're deciding to stay home in light of tighter enforcement.
These marches today are supposed to be part of an international day of protest for better worker rights. But the ones in the U.S. mainly are pushing for de facto open borders that would drive our U.S. workers' wages down toward global averages. Thus, these marchers are not pro-workers but want the same thing as the greediest, most abusive of business interests. It can be a little disconcerting to see all those news reports this weekend of tens of thousands (perhaps hundreds of thousands) of illegal aliens and their friends marching openly in the streets demanding rewards for breaking immigration laws. But take it from somebody who has been working full-time for the opposite cause since 1991 that the noise in the streets isn't the sound that matters in politics.
On the day before Gov. Jan Brewer of Arizona signed SB1070 into law, Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) called for a boycott of his own state. He opposes the new immigration enforcement law. The proposed boycott of Arizona is a cheap publicity stunt. It is counter-productive to the U.S. worker and it is completely illogical. I flew to Arizona today and spent $100 in Phoenix on Arizona made products. I feel good about it and might plan a family vacation to Scottsdale this summer.
In an effort led by Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Senators Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), and Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), Senate Democrats are moving towards an Amnesty bill without Republican support. A 26-page outline was circulated today, detailing an Amnesty plan that is similar to the one first released by Senators Schumer and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) a few weeks ago.
Just a few weeks ago, Roy introduced our search engine that allows you to look for businesses that are protecting American jobs by using the E-Verify employment verification system. Our database got a little publicity last week when an employment screening service, Liberty Screening in Houston, Texas, advertised our search engine on their website.
I just came back from taping an interview for the national CBS nightly news regarding the new Arizona immigration-enforcement law. My main point was that states are going to keep passing laws like these as long as the federal government allows 7 million illegal alien to continue to hold jobs and keep millions of Americans unemployed.
As of last week, there have only been 13,500 requests for H-1B visas since the federal government opened up the application process on April 1. The visas, which are issued to high-skilled workers in fields that experience a worker shortage, are capped at 65,000 per year and are usually completely grabbed up in the first few weeks.
Carpetmaker Mohawk Industries has settled a lawsuit with employees who claimed the company depressed wages by hiring illegal aliens. The company will pay $18 million after the six year battle.
Employees of Perdue Farms Inc. are accused in a class-action lawsuit of knowingly hiring illegal immigrants.
The plaintiffs allege that Perdue has conspired to hire large numbers of illegal immigrants, driving down wages of legal workers below market levels.http://www.dailyherald.com/story/print/?id=372037
Associated Press
More than 15,000 new businesses have been added to our E-Verify database today, increasing the number of total businesses to 195,885. That’s nearly 200,000 of your local restaurants, dry cleaners, car washes, and grocery stores that you can check to see if they’re protecting American jobs by only hiring legal workers.
A new study conducted by an LSU sociology professor and doctoral student finds that immigration, specifically the influx of Latino workers, increases unemployment and violence in Black communities. The study concludes that an increase in low-skill workers, displaces low-skill Black workers resulting in more violence.
Reading a survey mailed to me by the Democratic National Committee gives some insight into the frustration driving the thousands of illegal aliens marching in the streets against them this weekend. For all the talk by DNC leaders in favor of an amnesty, they didn't want to bring up immigration to people from whom they hoped to raise money.
While nearly 3 million Americans lost their jobs in 2009, the federal government issued more than 1 million new Green Cards over the same period of time. According to a new DHS report, 1,130,818 new Green Cards were issued to legal immigrants last year - the highest single-year number since 2006 and the fourth highest in history.
A new study conducted by the Public Policy Institute of California finds that immigration reform won't hurt or help the economy. The study finds that offering an amnesty to the nation's 11-18 million illegal aliens won't improve their individual financial situations.
The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) spent more than $683,000 lobbying Congress during the fourth-quarter. Much of this was spent lobbying for amnesty and increased immigration.
