Young illegal immigrants interviewed by Breitbart News outside the White House said they did not want Congress to curb future immigration — even in a compromise to win congressional amnesty and citizenship for themselves and their parents.
“Building a wall can’t stop people coming into different countries … it is a better opportunity for their families,” said Jessica A. who was part of a group from Trinity Washington University in Washington D.C. “I can’t say that needs to stop.”
When asked how many legal immigrants should be annually accepted, she responded: “I can’t give you an answer because it is my people.”
Each year, four million young Americans enter the labor market. But the federal government annually provides green cards to 1 million new legal immigrants and provides temporary work-permit and visas to roughly 2 million foreign workers. Democrats and business groups want to further increase the inflow, but in 2014, GOP voters defeated the “Gang of Eight” amnesty bill that would have doubled the immigration numbers and also provided Green Cards to an unlimited number of foreign technology graduates who pay tuition to American universities.
In 2012, former President Barack Obama created a new category of illegal immigrants by granting work permits to illegals who arrived as children. This “DACA” group now include 800,000 beneficiaries, but may grow to 2 million as additional young illegals turn 16.
Multiple youths interviewed by Breitbart News at the White House rejected any suggestion of a political compromise to help create an amnesty for the 800,000. “Why should we make a deal?” asked Nayeli L, from the City University of New York. “We need to be on a path to citizenship … [because] we do the dirty work,” said the university student about the majority of younger illegal immigrants who are not enrolled in college.
The students were part of several groups that arrived at the White House Tuesday afternoon, in an effort coordinated by older organizers from groups such as the union-managed United We Dream organization.
The youths’ sense of entitlement “is being taught [to them] by the media, by the Democratic political establishment. and by some of the Republican establishment,” said Mark Krikorian, director of the Center for Immigration Studies. Some DACA illegals are willing to support compromise deals, Krikorian said, but they are shoved out of the limelight by progressives who use the youths to win their unpopular push for wide-open borders. He continued:
If the goal was to just fix that status of this unique subgroup of illegal immigrants, a special case, then [Democrats] would be willing to deal — say, trade a ‘Dreamer’ amnesty for mandatory use of E-Verify [by employers]. But they’re not considering it because … the advocacy groups pushing it see the [youths] as a stepping stone to a broad amnesty.
While Breitbart News interviewed young illegals outside the White House, others youths chanted “No KKK, no racist USA, no Trump“ and “Help the kids: Deport the racists.”
Some of the students also mobbed a nearby pro-Trump protestor, calling him a racist. Their target, Eugene Delgaudio, who served 16 years on the school board in Loudoun County, Va., was at the White House to protest the Department of Education’s promotion of pro-transgender policies.
“I’m a Trump defender and I had a sign, ‘Defend Trump,’ but they assumed I was there for them,” Delgaudio told Breitbart News, adding:
I asked them if they believed in the First Amendment [but] they wanted to make it so that I can’t speak, so that I don’t have a voice. It is kind of ironic that they are claiming rights … but they have no respect for our constitution. They have no respect for the First Amendment, they have no respect for our way of life, which is to have free speech for everyone.
Ironically, an older Asian immigrant intervened in the fracas, spoke up for free speech, and kept the DACA protestors away from Delgaudio while he completed his videotaped speech.
When Breitbart News asked the illegals if new immigration limits were a fair trade for amnesty, Yoseline R. said: “I think no.” She added that she declined to set limits on immigration because she is concerned for members of her family outside the United States. Yoseline is a student studying for a communications degree.
An amnesty for the younger migrants is “just justice,” said Natalie H., who said she is a Mexican who was brought into the United States at age 3. Americans’ annual immigration limits should grow because foreign people want to “come here for a better life,” she said.
‘The goal here is … a better Dream Act,” not a balanced immigration policy, said Ellie S., whose illegal-immigrant Indian parents brought her into the United States. “We want more than just DACA,” said Brenda M. “We want citizenship, inclusion of our parents.”
Sam M. said legal immigration rates should double to 2 million per year, and all illegals should be eligible for amnesty and citizenship. “Everybody eligible,” she said, adding that she has a “Dreamer” scholarship from her university. Four-year “full ride,” she added.
The demonstrators were young college students, marking them as slightly younger than the average 25-year-old age of people covered by Obama’s DACA amnesty. As college students, they are a small minority of the illegals who were brought into the United States as children, because most of the younger illegals are either HS dropouts and graduates.
The students’ hostility to any compromise with Americans is sometimes highlighted by other reporters, including Sam Stein, an editor at the DailyBeast.com.
“I’m not going to step on top of my community to get ahead,” said Jose Aguiluz, a D.C. native who was brought by his family from Honduras when he was 15 years old and who received his DACA status in 2012.
Aguiluz, a nurse, was outside the White House on Tuesday to protest Trump’s decision. “By me trying to say, ‘Oh, let’s make a deal with the wall,’ it is like I’m stepping up on my community, my parents, uncles, and grandparents, that I’m putting them down so that I can get ahead,” he said. “That’s unfair and it’s not American.”
Nearby stood Carlos Arellano, who was brought to the United States by his parents from Mexico when he was 15 and received DACA protection at age 26… “DACA shouldn’t be used as a political football,” he said. “They are playing with the future of young, very bright immigrants like myself.”
Obama’s amnesty provided work-permit and Social Security cards to roughly 800,000 illegals, out of a total population of 2 million people who were smuggled into the United States as children by their illegal-alien parents.
Legislators in Congress are debating whether the 800,000 or more illegals should be given a formal legal amnesty and whether any amnesty should be paired with immigration reforms which help Americans raise their living standards amid the inflow of foreign labor.
Each year, the government also hands out almost 3 million short-term work permits to foreign workers. These permits include roughly 330,000 one-year OPT permits for foreign graduates of U.S. colleges, roughly 200,000 three-year H-1B visas for foreign white-collar professionals, and 400,000 two-year permits to DACA illegals.
The current annual flood of foreign labor into the United States spikes profits and Wall Street values by boosting government spending and by cutting salaries for manual and skilled labor offered by blue-collar and white-collar employees. It also drives up real estate prices, widens wealth-gaps, reduces high-tech investment, increases state and local tax burdens, hurts kids’ schools and college education, and sidelines at least 5 million marginalized Americans and their families.