American Jobs Taken by Guestworkers

Unemployed Americans Face Unequal Opportunity

The Center for Immigration Studies predicts a grim future for unemployed Americans. In an article titled Worse Than It Seems, the CIS reports overall unemployment for native-born Americans at 9.7 percent as of June 2009, which is 12.7 million unemployed native-born Americans. That number continues to rise as the most recent jobless rate has now climbed to 10.2 percent, the highest unemployment level since 1983.

There is another part of this equation, now referred to as U-6 by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, that needs to be considered and includes those unemployed people that want to work but have either given up looking for a job or have decided to take a temporary job. Using information from the June 2009 article, if U-6 individuals are included in the unemployment rate, that number then climbs as high as 16.3 percent, or 21.7 million native-born Americans. For certain segments of the population, including minorities with less than a high school education, their U-6 number climbs as high as 42 percent. 

Those millions of unemployed Americans understand that these statistics represent more than numbers, they represent individuals and families struggling to make scheduled mortgage and loan payments and the ability to buy food, medicine, and other necessities. Add to that the constant worry of not knowing when things will get better. Promises made by politicians about new job creation and an imminent economic turnaround just are not believable anymore, particularly for those who have been out of work for months fearing no light at the end of the tunnel.

Foreign Workers Competing for American Jobs

What isn't being talked about on the news or by politicians is that while millions of native-born American workers are struggling to find employment, there are some 125,000 foreign workers being legally welcomed each and every month into the United States to fill jobs Americans supposedly are unable or unwilling to fill. Many organizations are actually requesting more. Roy Beck, founder of NumbersUSA.com, explains in the video below that over the last 12-month period there were 951,247 green cards issued. Green cards give immigrants work permits that remain good throughout their lifetime. These green card holders can stay in the United States and work throughout their entire life if they choose. In addition to the green cards issued during that same time period, another 947,340 foreign workers were granted temporary work permits. These temporary permits do expire, but the holders of those permits can later apply for a permanent green card.

Combining these two numbers tells us that 1.9 million work permits were granted to immigrants during the past year.  Broken down, that equals 160,000 work permits issued per month. To appease immigrant activists who object that the 1.9 million number may include some immigrants that may already have been in the U.S. with temporary permits, let's go ahead and remove those workers from that number. That still leaves some 125,000 work permits being issued each and every month. 

Let's look at what's going on at one more angle:  According to NumbersUSA.com, 7.3 million jobs were eliminated from the American payroll since the start of 2008, while 2.7 million new foreign workers were granted permanent work permits and temporary work visas by the federal government during that same period. These foreign workers supposedly are needed to perform jobs that Americans cannot or will not do, though it's uncertain who determines what those jobs are. Ask any unemployed American worker at random that question, and you'll likely get a much different answer. Wouldn't it then be fair to say that representing that assumption on their behalf might then be considered an affront to either their work ethic or the intelligence of unemployed American workers — or both?

Immigration Reform Legislation Needed 

Whether affected directly by job loss or just empathetic to fellow tax-paying Americans, we should expect our leaders to commit to returning Americans to work before inviting additional immigrants to compete for limited available jobs. Shouldn't we ask politicians to prioritize their legislative efforts and immediately halt the issuing of visas of any kind until Americans are returned to work?

The SAFE Act Could Protect American Jobs

One thing that can be done immediately is ask that your representatives support the SAFE Act. The SAFE Act (H.R. 2305) was introduced by Rep Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) and has 45 cosponsors. This bill, as we understand it, would shut down the Visa lottery which is managed by the Department of State and currently grants up to 55,000 permanent resident visas annually based solely on random drawing and without regard to humanitarian needs, family ties, or what skills they might contribute to this country.  Introduced on 5/7/2009, H.R. 2305 was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary and then referred on June 12th to the Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security, and International Law, chaired by Rep Zoe Lofgren. (Zoe Lofgren, represents the heavily Democratic16th District of California based in San Jose, CA. Lofgren taught immigration law at Santa Clara University and worked in the office of her predecessor Don Edwards on the Richard Nixon impeachment. After winning the election in to the House in 1994, she has held her seat without substantive opposition. According to OnTheIssues.org, Lofgren scores a 0% on immigration issues by FAIR.)

Does it make sense that our government continues to invite foreign workers into the United States while making excuses for the lack of opportunity to its own people? 

Stop Importing Foreign Workers Until Americans Are Employed – PLEASE!