Discharge bid is really about cheap labor

The discharge petition effort is not primarily about helping DACA recipients. Both major sides in the House favor permanent legalization for young adults who illegally crossed the border or overstayed visas as minors.

But on one side are Republicans who believe that a legalization bill that adds competitors to the legal workforce should also show concern for American workers by preventing hiring of future illegal workers and by reducing some other immigration.

On the other side are the discharge participants who focus on helping only illegal immigrants — and the employers who hire them.

Legalization could have passed months ago if discharge signers had been willing to support the “Goodlatte bill.” But they have rejected that compromise, which not only provides the legalization but also mandates E-Verify for all employers to reduce illegal hiring. And it ends the chain migration and visa lottery channels that pour foreign workers into this country.

The reforms in the Goodlatte bill — introduced by four House chairmen — are supported not only by the majority of House Republicans but also by large margins of likely midterm voters. Components have been subjected to hearings and committee votes.

The discharge effort is an end run to do the bidding of corporate lobbies that want to protect the ability of outlaw employers to hire an illegal workforce. And they want the government to continue to issue more than 1 million lifetime immigrant work permits each year to allow employers to avoid having to recruit from the huge non-working U.S. population, which is disproportionately American minorities and people without college degrees.

First-quarter government data reveal about 50 million working-age Americans who have no job. Millions more Americans who do have jobs are stuck in stagnant and even declining incomes. Discharge petition signers would increase their labor competition; Goodlatte bill supporters would give them some relief.

Roy Beck is president of NumbersUSA Education & Research Foundation.