Speech #1130115918

Our Senate Democratic friends talk about paycheck fairness repeatedly. Yet they are supporting policies that take jobs and wages directly from American women by the millions. Immigration policy is supposed to serve the national interest and the people of the United States. not the interests of a few activist CEOs and the politicians who are catering to them. We have had 40 years of mass immigration combined with falling wages. a shrinking workplace. and exploding welfare rolls. We know that. dont we. friends and colleagues? It is time for a shift in emphasis. It is time to get our own people back to work and our communities out of poverty and our schools back on their feet. Harvard professor Dr. George Borjasprobably the leading academic in this entire area and has been for many yearsestimates that our current immigration rate results in an annual loss of more than $400 billion in wages for Americans competing with immigrant labor. Between 2000 and today the government issued nearly 30 million visas to temporary foreign workers and permanent immigrants. largely lower skilled and lower wage. A recent Reuters poll showed that Americans wish to see record immigration reduced. not increased. by a huge 3to1 margin. as the Gang of 8 bill would have done. Another poll from pollster Kellyanne Conway recently showed that 80 percent of Americans think companies should hire from among the existing unemployed rather than bringing in new workers from abroad to fill these jobs. Yet Senate Democrats have unanimously supported legislation to double the annual supply of labor brought into the United States. Some people think this is agricultural work. Not so. The increase in immigration under that bill would be more than 90 percent nonagricultural work. These jobs are going to be taken by anyone. So what about the good. decent and patriotic citizens of our country who fight our wars. who obey our laws. who follow our rules. and want a better future for their children?