My colleagues Steve Camarota and Karen Zeigler report that two-thirds of what little job growth we’ve seen during President Obama’s term has gone to immigrant workers, primarily newly arrived legal immigrants. Specifically, in the third quarter of 2012, there were about 2 million more immigrants working than during the first quarter of 2009, compared with only about 1 million more native-born workers. Here’s the key figure:
At a time when U-6 unemployment for young college grads is 13 percent (and over 30 percent for high school dropouts), it’d be nice if someone running for, say, president would at least broach the subject of having Congress reduce legal immigration from its current level of 1.1 million per year. Barring that, you’d think whoever is president would at least avoid gratuitously increasing immigrant job competition for Americans. And you’d be wrong:
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Obama has offered amnesty to up to 2 million illegal aliens through his unconstitutional DREAM decree, with no corresponding cuts to legal immigration;
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In auditing company personnel records for illegal workers, his administration has, as a matter of policy, refused to detain any illegal workers, ensuring that they can just go and find another (illegal) job; and
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His Justice Department called on the Supreme Court to strike down Arizona’s 2007 law requiring use of E-Verify by all employers in the state (this is a different law from the 2010 measure that prompted so much leftist outrage).
Hilariously, the open-borders Cato Institute’s Alex Nowrasteh told Stephen Dinan of the Washington Times that the report is “making a mountain out of a molehill.” Tell that to the 23 million Americans who are unemployed, forced to settle for part-time work, or gave up looking for work altogether.