Jim Geraghty has a piece on the home page today about how Jeff Sessions got Scott Walker’s ear on immigration. Here is a further statement from Sessions on the debate:
Any political party that wants to win needs to demonstrate that it is willing to go to bat for working Americans. Perhaps no issue more divides a small handful of elites in Washington, D.C. from the American people than the issue of immigration. The idea that immigration should be increased beyond any level ever recorded — without any discussion of its social or economic impact — is not mainstream, but extreme. It is a position rejected by voters of every racial and political background. By contrast, there is no more sensible, mainstream, or popular position than to insist than any immigration policy we adopt must improve wages, employment, and living conditions for all of our residents.
Real hourly wages are lower today than in 1973. Labor force participation is at its lowest level in four decades. In that time, the total level of immigration has more than quadrupled from under 10 million to over 40 million. And the percentage of the country born abroad has risen from fewer than 1 in 21 to almost 1 in 7, soon eclipsing the highest level ever recorded and rising to new records each year to follow.
The Census Bureau projects another 14 million immigrants will arrive in the U.S. between now and 2025, or a new population nearly four times the size of Los Angeles. But the Gang of Eight — who refused to produced their own immigration estimates — offered legislation that would double the rate of new immigration into the U.S.
What the American people want now is moderation: they want us to slow down a bit so those struggling here today — immigrant and U.S.-born alike — can rise together into a healthy, stable, and growing middle class.