Employers are the problem, not immigrants
If the last presidential administration could not deport 11 million people living without authorization in the United States, everyone needs to recognize it will never happen.
Nor should it.
Giving these hardworking people a path to legal residency, full labor protections and higher wages is the best thing Congress can do now. Because the only people who benefit from the fake driver’s licenses, forged Social Security cards and wage theft are the criminal employers who exploit these good people.
For the last decade, immigration has been a top issue for Republican voters. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has pledged to block any effort to grant undocumented workers a path to citizenship. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has turned immigration and imaginary sanctuary cities into campaign gold.
Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric and lies about a Mexicanfinanced wall helped him win the White House. But after promising to crack down on immigrant workers without papers, he oversaw only a symbolic increase in workplace raids and never required employers to use the federal E-Verify database.
In fact, he tried to cut E-Verify’s budget.
His reasoning was simple: Forcing 11 million workers to leave the country would destroy the residential construction, hospitality and food production industries. Lobbyists and business leaders have quietly stopped every effort to reduce the availability of undocumented workers in order to preserve profits.
Every labor economist and serious politician knows the U.S. economy relies on unauthorized labor. And no one seriously thinks these workers are going to leave on their own. Even after the Coronavirus Recession, we still do not have enough U.S. citizens with the right skills to fill those jobs.
Every U.S. citizen should want to shut down the black market in labor. We should punish companies that boost profits and cheat competitors by bidding underpaid and overworked laborers to win contracts they do not deserve.
Republicans should engage with President Joe Biden on immigration reform to boost all American workers by leveling the playing field.
Biden’s bill would grant perma
In one of his first acts, President Joe Biden offered an immigration overhaul.
nent residency to those who deserve it most: the so-called Dreamers brought here as children, families with temporary protective status, refugees who cannot return home, and experienced farmworkers who’ve kept us fed.
About 95 percent of Dreamers, or 1.1 million people, are working legally under current law, and they paid $6.2 billion in taxes in 2019, according to New American Economy, an immigrant rights group. More than 96 percent of refugees and TPS grantees, or nearly 3 million workers, have jobs and paid $2.5 billion in taxes.
The Trump administration wanted to expel these hard-workers. Biden’s plan would allow them to become citizens in three years, making their employers, landlords and Internal Revenue Service happy.
The U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021 would also allow other undocumented immigrants to pass a background check, pay back taxes and begin an eightyear path to citizenship while enjoying the right to work without fear.
Biden has also proposed increasing the number of work visas and recouping those approved but never used in past years. Thousands of companies, ranging from landscapers to artificial intelligence startups, could finally fill the jobs for which there are no Americans interested or qualified.
While the bill has many other provisions, these necessary measures would maintain the existing workforce, critical to rebuilding the Main Street economy after the pandemic.
These authorized immigrants will keep America strong. The U.S. population is growing at its slowest rate since the 1930s, according to the Census Bureau. Americans are having fewer babies, and as a result, the average age is getting older.
Immigration is the only reason the U.S. population is not shrinking, as it is in other developed nations. Immigrants bring a fresh perspective and start new businesses at a much higher rate than nativeborn Americans.
Clearing a path for the undocumented to normalize their status, though, must come with other reforms. Biden should overhaul, improve and mandate the E-Verify system to stop employers from cheating. A more secure border would not hurt either.
Congress should also pass Democratic proposals to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour and tighten rules around who can be an independent contractor and who is an employee. Leveling the playing field for all workers, immigrants and citizens, will improve the lives of all.
Republican leaders have already harrumphed and staked out negotiating positions. But these same senators nearly passed a bill under President George. W. Bush and struck a deal in 2013 that was only blocked by conservative demagoguery in the House.
This time, all sides should learn from the COVID-19 pandemic and recognize the need to get everyone working—legally—to repair the economic damage.