Let the Voters Decide
This blog is not a formal policy proposal by NumbersUSA. It represents my own ideas and conjectures.
Back in April of this year, many unions declared themselves in favor of legalization of the millions of illegal aliens residing in our nation. For the future, the unions called for "An independent commission to analyze the labor market's needs and assess shortages for the admission of future foreign workers." It seems the unions expect the commission to reduce the future supply of foreign workers who compete with union members for jobs.
Such a commission, or panel, would subject to enormous pressure, even bribery. Mass immigration is all about raising the supply of labor, which reduces the wage workers can demand for their services. It's like a wealthy friend of mine said when I brought up the subject of immigration a couple of years ago: "Yes! Keep the price of labor cheap!" That is an exact quote. For example, as of 2005, there were about 8 million people working illegally in the United States. If the cheap labor employers can reduce the going wage by $1 per hour, they save $8 million per hour, or $64 million per day, or almost $22 billion per year.
If the cheap labor employers are making so much money, giving bribes of $1 million or even $5 million to the members of the panel would be pocket change for them. Forming a commission that would rule on whether there is a need for foreign workers would be asking for corruption.
Is there any mechanism that could determine how many foreign workers are to be let in, yet not be subject to corruption? How about ?
Why not put it on the ballot for every presidential election? People would vote for the president, and then they would also vote for the number of people to be admitted to the United States each year for the next 4 years.
Here is how it might appear on the ballot, if an election were held tomorrow: The United States admitted 1.5 million foreign workers in 2008. What should the yearly number be for 2009-2012?
0 | |
500,000 | |
1 million | |
same as now | |
2 million | |
write in amount | ___________ |
With electronic voting, people could actually type in the amount of people they think should be admitted to the United States, and the numbers could be added up and divided by the number of votes cast, all done very quickly by computer. In the past, the write in amounts would have had to be tabulated by hand. While some people might get confused and make a nonsensical vote, such votes will be canceled out by the 100 million other reasonable votes.
I just have a feeling that the outcome of the vote will be that employment based immigration is reduced to 0. This would silence all the people who claim that the American people want continued mass immigration. Even if my prediction is wrong, the vote will show what the American people really want.
I would add some flexibility to the law in order to protect the American worker. For every 1% the unemployment rate rises from the date of the election, the number of employment-based green cards and employment-based visas granted shall drop by 50%. That way, if we have a recession like the current one, employment-based immigration will drop to 0.
At current population and workforce levels, that means that if the unemployment rate rises by 1%, 1.55 million people will be out of work, but we will only decrease employment-based immigration by 750,000. That is not as stringent as some might like, however: (1) It is a lot better than what we have now! (2) I purposely made it like that because most of the people who will object to it as “too stringent” will be: (a) people who simply do not understand the issue; (b) people who are bought and paid for by the cheap labor lobby; (c) people who are the puppet masters of the cheap labor lobby; (d) globalists who do not believe there should be a United States.
There are some additional details to the proposal. If the unemployment rate falls, I would still only admit the voted-upon number, because I want the American worker to enjoy the wage increases that should come with prosperity. Right now, income inequality is at an all-time high, and that has to change.
I would also add that the admission of persons with extraordinary ability- the O Visa, should be unaffected by the number that is voted upon. This way, we can always secure the admission of an Albert Einstein to the United States. The talents of such people are always welcome.
You can't bribe all 100 million people who voted in the last presidential election, so this proposal would virtually eliminate the possibility of corruption. More importantly, this proposal would return control of U.S. immigration policy to the legal American voter.
Note: if you look at table 10 of this Center for Immigration Studies report, you will see the proof that the U.S. granted admission to 1.5 million foreign workers in 2008.
CHARLES BREITERMAN is an attorney and writer/researcher for NumbersUSA