Politicians praise the unemployed but vote to give corporations more foreign workers
On Sunday, October 20, Delaware's U.S. Senators Tom Carper and Chris Coons joined Delaware's U.S. Representative John Carney to host a jobs fair. In their quotes to the media about the event, they sounded like three politicians who possess great faith in the ability of the U.S. workforce to meet the needs of employers.
From PoliticalNews.me:
'Today was a great opportunity for Delawareans looking for seasonal work to meet with employers and see what's available,' said Senator Carper. 'Like I always say, Delaware has a first-class workforce that attracts businesses to the First State. I'm proud that along with Chris and John, we can make events like this happen for the folks at home no matter what is going on in Washington.'
'The turnout at this afternoon’s job fair is proof-positive that there are unemployed or underemployed Delawareans who are out there ready and willing to work if given the opportunity,' said Senator Coons....
....'This job fair was a chance to help Delawareans looking for work over the holiday season,' said Congressman Carney. 'Many retailers are searching for committed workers to help them out during the busiest time of the year. More needs to be done to get Delawareans into permanent jobs, which is why we’re hosting another job fair in Newark on November 4.'
Back in Washington, Carper, Coons and Carney have shown considerably less faith in U.S. workers.
Corporations have been laying off U.S. workers while lobbying Congress to grant them greater access to millions more workers from abroad. The corporate lobby isn't just asking for increases in foreign workers to meet demand in a few niche markets. They claim the U.S. workforce is insufficient to meet the demands of industries across the board. The actions of Carper, Coons, and Carney are aligned with the corporate lobbies.
Senators Carper and Coons voted with sixty six other Senataors to pass S. 744 which would double the number of permanent and temporary workers admitted annually. Representative Carney is one of 184 cosponsors of H.R. 15 which would do the same.
Under current immigration law, the U.S. grants an average of 1 million permanent work permits to immigrants every year. In addition the U.S. admits approximately 700,000 guest workers every year. The Senate and House immigration bills imply that there are so few capable U.S. workers that these numbers must be doubled despite 20 million U.S. workers wanting full-time jobs but unable to find them.
The mainstream media has buried those numbers. Doubling the number of new foreign workers is deeply unpopular with the American public. Were the media to focus on the immigration increases at the heart of the comprehensive immigration proposals before Congress, public support for those proposals would drop. But some of the most prominent immigration reporters have professed admiration for the comprehensive movement and shown no interest in reporting the numerical increases. As a result, not only are their readers left in the dark about immigration numbers, but politicians are never asked by the press to square their stated belief in U.S. workers with their work on Capitol Hill to add 33 million permanent foreign workers (and millions more guest workers) over the next ten years via legalization and future immigration.
JEREMY BECK is the Director of the Media Standards Project for NumbersUSA