In March Kevin McCarthy blamed Biden for causing immigrants to travel to the southern borders of the United States. He held a press conference with some of his fellow Republicans in the desert. His rhetoric was as ridiculous as his premise. Biden did not cause more migrants to come to our borders. Climate change, COVID-19, and desperation brought them to the richest country in the world. I can’t blame them for wanting a slice of the American Pie. My parents fled Italy to get away from Mussolini, poverty, hunger, and despair. It was a life-changing experience for them and for me, their future son. I’m grateful every day.
Solutions to our borders and immigration are complicated. I do know, without immigrants, documented and undocumented, our economy would collapse. We depend on them because they make up one-third of the workforce in construction, farming, domestic labor, and food processing. According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, undocumented workers contribute $1.53 billion to the California economy. More specifically, in CA23 the Republican Overlords benefit substantially from the sales taxes paid by the undocumented community, to the tune of $22 million.
In a report in 2019 (Ya-that was during Trump’s administration) by The Center of Budget and Policy Priorities, they cite George Borjas. He argues that “immigration improves labor market efficiency. Moreover, it turns out that part of this efficiency gain accrues to natives, suggesting that existing estimates of the benefits from immigration may be ignoring a potentially important source of these benefits.”
Instead of making it harder for immigrants to come to our country and support our economy, we should be working to put policies in place rather than ridiculous rhetoric. We have one of those for-profit GEO detention Centers in CA23. I can’t find any time that Kevin has even acknowledged that it exists, that it has detained innocent asylum seekers fleeing persecution, that it consistently violates human rights, and that GEO is making a huge profit on the backs of taxpayers. You really didn’t need to go to the border Kevin. You could have just visited your district.
There is an amazing non-profit, KWESI, that has stepped up to help the detainees. Their mission is to advocate for detained immigrants’ human rights and work towards getting them released. They also support their transition once they are released with housing, food, clothing, and maybe more importantly, emotional support and care. They are filling in a little bit of the need our current congressman is ignoring.
I usually do a little pitch for myself and the district I want to represent, but today I want to ask you to help KWESI. They are good people doing good work in CA23 and they need your help. You can visit their website at https://www.kernwelcomesimmigrants.com and donate. They are good-hearted progressives, volunteering their time and making a difference.
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