Gohmert: Obama Immigration Policies To ‘Financially Damage Americans’

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) is attacking the Obama administration’s immigration policies, following the release of a report revealing that for every job created in the U.S. since 2000, the government has added two immigrants.

“This new information is compounded by the fact that the President is implementing policies that would unilaterally declare illegal immigrants as ‘lawfully present’ in the United States, making job hunting even more difficult for over 90 million Americans who are eligible to work but unemployed,” he said Thursday.

This week the Center for Immigration Studies released a new analysis of Census data revealing that while 18 million legal and illegal immigrants have arrived in the U.S. since January 2000, just 9.3 million new jobs were created over the same period of time.

“This administration’s policies have slowed the growth of employment within the United States and hurt struggling Americans by making employment more difficult to find as well as drastically depressing wages,” Gohmert said. “Under the Obama Administration, this country has seen the lowest labor force participation levels since 1978. Roughly 92 million people in the Unites States are out of a job, including those who are eligible to work but have given up even trying to find a job.”

Gohmert noted that the report also showed that “native-born Americans made up 77 percent of the workforce in 2000, but less than 72 percent by the end of 2014.”

In November, President Obama announced his administration would unilaterally provide legal status and work permits to millions of undocumented immigrants — something Gohmert said shows the administration “is out of touch with the financial struggles of willing American hard-workers.”

“The unlawful executive amnesty decree, illegally created by President Obama, will double immigration rates in the country,” he said. “That will financially damage Americans legally here all the more. This President’s policies are crushing the economy and doing significant damage to hurting families who try to obey our laws.”

“It’s time for the President to start putting the needs of American workers harmed by his policies ahead of those who violate the law,” Gohmert concluded.