It is incomprehensible that Obama thinks he can “contextualize” rewarding lawbreakers with a path to citizenship, or persuade Americans that adding millions of workers to the labor pool is in their interest.
In 2007, the Senate’s self-styled “grand bargainers” tried to ram through comprehensive immigration reform amnesty for illegal immigrants. The American people said, “Oh, hell no!”
Back then the unemployment rate was 4.5 percent. Today, the jobless rate hovers around 10 percent.
In 2007, the black unemployment rate was 8.5 percent; today it’s 15.5 percent.
The Center for American Progress reports:
I want to share a comment that was left on my Facebook wall:Our nation today is mired in one of the worst labor markets since the Great Depression. There are currently nearly 15 million Americans unemployed, with the unemployment rate hovering at or just under 10 percent for nearly a year. At the end of May, nearly half of those unemployed (46 percent) have been out of work and actively seeking a job for at least six months, a post-World War II record high. Currently, there are nearly five workers actively searching for work for every job available, compared to just one and a half job searchers per job opening before the Great Recession began.
Worse still, the labor market problems we see right now will be with us for some time. The massive employment hole left by the Great Recession will take years to fill. If we added 218,000 private-sector jobs each month from now on—the highest monthly payroll increase seen so far this year in the private sector—it would still take almost five years to fill the hole….
In some far off universe citizenship might be cogent to this discussion. There seems to be some misplaced allegiance to perpetrators of a criminal act. Each year we make available 5 million residency visas, far more than any other country. I cannot live in Spain, Brazil, France or any other country without proper entry documentation.
If someone is willing to break the law to enter this country, it reasonable to believe that they would break other laws while here and to remain here. What is far more interesting is how corporate mentality has aligned itself with proponents of open borders and has open border proponents fighting their fight. There are very few if any Americans of middle or lower incomes that benefit from relaxed immigration policies. It’s our families that bear a disproportionate brunt of this issue. Over burdened schools, health care, public services, social services and more all for a group of criminals who disregard borders and immigration laws.
The American people know our immigration system isn’t broken. Instead, millions of illegal immigrants have broken the law. That’s why CIR is still DOA.
Americans want Obama to secure the border and enforce existing laws. They want him to focus like a laser on jobs, jobs, jobs and look out for U.S. citizens.
