GOP frontrunner Donald Trump promised to “get immigration numbers under control, as the voters have demanded,” following the release of a new report from the Center for Immigration Studies revealing record levels of legal and illegal immigration.
“Record rates of immigration have produced lower wages and higher unemployment for U.S. workers. Pew polling shows 83 percent of all voters — Democrats, Republicans and Independents — think immigration should be frozen or reduced,” Trump stated in a campaign press release on Monday evening.
The biggest beneficiaries of allowing fewer foreign workers into our country would be minority workers, including all immigrants now living here, who are competing for jobs, benefits and community resources against record waves of foreign workers. Limiting job competition would reopen pathways to middle-class stability and shrink welfare rolls. In addition, it would relieve overcrowding in our schools and hospitals that afflict our poorest communities. Yet, Senators Cruz and Rubio have led the charge for even higher immigration rates — a policy supported by only 7 percent of the Republican electorate. When I am President we will listen to the people — not the special interests — and get immigration numbers under control, as the voters have demanded.
According to the Center for Immigration Studies, there are now 61 million immigrants living in the United States. Three-fourths of those immigrants, roughly 45.3 million, are here legally. The report, which relies on government data, also estimates that 14.8 million illegal immigrants are living in the United States.