The claim by Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-CA), the chair of the House Immigration Subcommittee, that he is focused on “illegal” immigration was disabused at his latest hearing. Instead, the Chairman pitted native-born workers against foreign-born workers (plenty of whom are citizens). We also learned something about the GOP’s jobs agenda. After all of that time waiting to hear about something even slightly related to that subject from Republican leaders, we found out that it revolves around Elton Gallegly’s (R-CA) grandchildren.
Yes, at another of his immigrant-bashing hearings last week, Gallegly complained that his teenage grandkids weren't able to find summer jobs in the fast food industry (tweeted by us here). Apparently, that’s the fault of immigrants. Add that to this list of what immigrants can be blamed for, compiled by other right-wing outfits: the destruction of the Chesapeake Bay, global warming, various flu epidemics, and leprosy.
Gallegly is blinded by his anti-immigrant fervor, and is in cahoots with Representatives Lamar Smith (TX) and Steve King (IA). These “three amigos” are trying to force the mass deportation of immigrants through a cleverly named program called “attrition through enforcement.” But if enforcement-only policies worked as envisioned, then levels of “illegal” immigration would have significantly decreased, since President Obama and DHS have focused its immigration work on securing the border and deporting a record number of immigrants. But as a Pew Hispanic Center study revealed earlier this year: the undocumented population has remained practically the same at 11 million.
To most of us, that is enough of a sign telling us that it’s time to rethink strategy; to the three amigos, it just means that they need to ramp up their game, ignoring the fact that their strategy could have a devastating impact on America’s economy. Noted in Walter Ewing’s (Senior Researcher at the Immigration Policy Center) piece in Alternet:
An economy with more people does not mean lower wages and higher unemployment -- it's simply a bigger economy. New workers actually create more jobs…
In his opening statement, Subcommittee Chairman Elton Gallegly (R-24th/CA) wasted no time in sounding the alarm that unemployed native-born workers are being left to twist in the wind as immigrants gobble up the few new jobs which have become available since the end of the Great Recession. Yet the preponderance of the evidence presented during the hearing failed to support that conclusion.
Gallegly should particularly be worried about what his anti-immigration stance is doing to California’s economy.
Not too far north of Gallegly’s district lies Silicon Valley. According to Tech Crunch, the U.S. immigration policies are having a devastating impact on entrepreneurship:
NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw visited Silicon Valley last month to meet immigrant entrepreneurs. At Microsoft’s Mountain View campus, he met with a dozen of them. More than half said that they might be forced to return to their home countries. That’s because they have the same visa issues that Kunal Bahl had. Unable to get a visa that would allow him to start a company after he graduated from Wharton in 2007, Kunal returned home to India. In February 2010, he started SnapDeal—India’s Groupon. Instead of creating hundreds of jobs in the U.S., Kunal ended up creating them in New Delhi.
At a time when our economy is stagnating, some American political leaders are working to keep the world’s best and brightest out. They mistakenly believe that skilled immigrants take American jobs away. The opposite is true: skilled immigrants start the majority of Silicon Valley startups; they create jobs.
Meanwhile, entrepreneurship is booming in countries that compete with us. And more than half a million doctors, scientists, researchers, and engineers in the U.S. are stuck in “immigration limbo”. They are on temporary work visas and are waiting for permanent-resident visas, which are in extremely short supply. These workers can’t start companies, justify buying houses, or grow deep roots in their communities. Once they get in line for a visa, they can’t even accept a promotion or change jobs. They could be required to leave the U.S. immediately—without notice—if their employer lays them off. Rather than live in constant fear and stagnate in their careers, many are returning home.
It’s not just high-tech. The flawed immigration strategy is hurting the U.S. economy in other sectors, too. Via CNN
Highly-skilled foreign-born workers contribute more to the economy than they take away and unless the American government enacts immigration reform, the U.S. "risks falling behing in the global race for talent," according to a report released Wednesday.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas on Wednesday released its 2010 annual report. Attached to the report was an essay authored by two economists who argue that that reform is needed to boost the legal immigration of highly-educated workers to the U.S.
"The disproportionate focus on illegal immigration is missing the picture that the legal system of immigration is broken as well," Federal Reserve senior economist Pia Orrenius told CNN. "The cost of ignoring problems with the legal immigration of high-skilled workers in some respects is higher than the costs of illegal immigration."
Though Gallegly claims, as he did in last Thursday’s hearing, that’s he’s not against “legal” immigration, he is obviously not for it either. If he was, then he would be advocating for policies that would make it easier for bright and educated immigrants in his state (or this country) to set up businesses that would create more jobs for all Americans – foreign-born or not. Instead, immigrants are actively seeking opportunities abroad, and are being recruited by other countries that are happy to thrive on some immigrant business.
However, that’s of no concern to Gallegly, who, after all, doesn’t care if you’re American or not, as long as his grandchildren are able to get their summer jobs.
Cross-Posted at America's Voice.