“If Democrats really wanted to help minorities and underserved communities … they’d limit immigration to protect American workers,” Donald Trump Jr. said in his speech on the first night of the convention.
The statement is one straight out of Economics 101 and a reminder of the deep divide in the GOP between the populist voters and the core GOP establishment of business moguls and donors. The establishment favors the large-scale inflow of immigrant workers, consumers, and renters, while the voters want immigration minimized until the economy recovers.
Elsewhere in the speech, Trump declared
[Joe] Biden also wants to bring in more illegal immigrants to take jobs from American citizens. His open border policies would drive wages down for Americans at a time when low-income workers were getting real wage increases for the first time in modern history.
Since 2016, Trump’s administration has seen a back-and-forth struggle between populist voters and business donors. Trump overcame stiff opposition from the “swamp” to eventually block illegal blue-collar migration over the border. That policy helped push up wages for blue-collar Americans at a faster rate than white-collar wages.
Since June 22, Trump has begun to trim the huge inflow of white-collar visa workers that take jobs from U.S. college graduates.
Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign is promising a nationwide amnesty for illegal immigrants, rapid increases in legal immigration, and a dramatic jump in refugee settlement. Democrats also promise a temporary halt to border enforcement, the inflow of more visa workers, plus a green-card giveaway to many temporary visa workers who already have taken jobs from American graduates.