State of the Union 2012: Obama’s Immigration Platform Fails Americans
Leah Durant
January 25, 2012
Early in his State of the Union Address, President Obama called for passage of the DREAM Act, a bill that would give an estimated 2 million illegal aliens a path to citizenship if they had lived in the country for a predetermined period or served in the military. Calling DREAMers “American through and through,” Obama claimed that “opponents of action have run out of excuses.” And that while Congress should pass Comprehensive Immigration Reform, the United States should “at least stop expelling talented young people.”
Although job creation was a dominant theme during last night’s speech, the president’s immigration platform does little to improve the jobs picture for America’s workers. Much like his speech in 2011, last night’s State of the Union failed to acknowledge how high levels of legal and illegal immigration affect the labor market and economy, or the detrimental effect that importing too many workers has on jobless Americans, particularly low skilled natives.
Although DREAM is often touted as a solution, the fact remains that the passage of DREAM legislation would not apply to the overwhelming majority of aliens entering the country illegally who are low skilled and compete with natives for work.
Researchers have found numerous links that tie mass immigration in the US to declining rates of employment for lower skilled populations. In fact, one 2005 study by Harvard researchers George Borjas and Lawrence Katz found that immigration from the 1980 to 2000 period reduced the average earnings of native high school dropouts by as much as eight percent and other demographic groups by two to four percent. The study essentially found that massive immigration increases competition in entry level and low-skilled sectors and helps drive down wages and employment opportunities.
Last month’s job report, by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, recorded the unemployment rate at 8.5 percent for the month of December and estimated that 22 million Americans remain underemployed or jobless. If the president’s speech on immigration was simply meant to placate the nation’s frustration with the government’s failure to address this critical issue, it would have served a more valuable purpose. It is disingenuous, however, when discussing the causes of joblessness to avoid the current discussion on immigration we should be having.
Large-scale immigration lowers the value of labor, drives down wages and exacerbates the widening divide between the poor and wealthy classes. Given the country’s inability to create jobs, the administration should reject policies, like DREAM and others, which add more foreign workers to an already swamped labor pool.
Unauthorized workers make up an astounding 5.4 percent of the nation’s workforce. Instead of opening up more jobs for illegal workers via the DREAM Act or other policies, the president should push for the full enactment of E-verify to preserve jobs for America’s legal workforce. Making E-Verify mandatory is an important first step in putting Americans back to work and fixing our broken immigration system.
