Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) is warning House and Senate Republicans not to be “fooled” by President-elect Joe Biden’s upcoming amnesty plan for the 11 to 22 million illegal aliens living in the United States, which he says will provide lip service to federal immigration enforcement.
Last week, open borders activists suggested that Biden’s upcoming amnesty plan is the “most aggressive agenda” they have seen in years. The plan is expected to provide amnesty to nearly all illegal aliens living in the U.S. and potentially expand legal immigration, a staple of the corporate lobby’s outsourcing goals.
Cotton, author of the RAISE Act to boost U.S. wages by reducing legal immigration, urged Republicans that the plan will likely “add a fig leaf of ‘security’ and ‘enforcement'” and will be labeled as a “‘compromise'” piece of legislation despite being “the most radical immigration bill in American history.”
Cotton slammed the plan as prioritizing the interests of corporate special interests pursuing cheap foreign labor over the needs of 18 million jobless Americans and another more than six million underemployed Americans.
“Joe Biden is wasting no time trying to enact his radical immigration agenda,” Cotton said. “He’s unveiling his draft immigration bill this week, and it’s what you’d expect from the party of open borders: Total amnesty, no regard for the health or security of Americans, and zero enforcement.”
Cotton continued:
The Biden plan is bad for American workers and bad for economic recovery. American unemployment is sharply increasing with over a million new unemployment claims in the first week of January. Bringing in more immigrant labor will only worsen the problem & further reduce wages.
[Emphasis added]Biden also plans to immediately undo pandemic border closures. The lack of testing and controls at the border will mean a massive increase in the spread of the virus. Americans understand this, which is why 78 percent support keeping the borders closed. [Emphasis added]
…
Let’s be clear: Joe Biden is prioritizing amnesty ahead of the pandemic or getting Americans back to work. We can’t let him get away with it.
[Emphasis added]
Cotton also noted that Biden is set to introduce his amnesty plan as a caravan of approximately 6,500 foreign nationals, primarily from Central America, is on the move across the region in an effort to rush the U.S.-Mexico border.
Guatemala’s security forces have attempted to push the caravan back.
“Joe Biden’s bill would provide amnesty & citizenship for millions of illegal aliens, allowing them to jump ahead of law-abiding immigrants who followed the rules,” Cotton said. “There are already thousands more rushing toward our southern border to take advantage of Joe Biden’s amnesty plan.”
Sens. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Susan Collins (R-ME) have previously suggested that they are open to working with the incoming Biden administration on striking an amnesty deal. Likewise, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) reportedly told colleagues in November 2020 that finding “common ground” with Biden on immigration “would benefit all of us.”
An amnesty would flood the labor market with millions of legalized foreign competitors for U.S. jobs against a growing number of jobless working and middle class Americans.
Economists have found that their job opportunities and wages can be easily diminished by high immigration levels.
One particular study by the Center for Immigration Studies’ Steven Camarota revealed that for every one percent increase in the immigrant portion of American workers’ occupation, their weekly wages are cut by perhaps 0.5 percent. This means the average native-born American worker today has his weekly wages reduced by potentially 8.75 percent, since more than 17 percent of the workforce is foreign-born.
The high immigration policy is a boon for giant corporations, real estate investors, Wall Street, university systems, and Big Agriculture that can cash in on an economy that offers low wages to an inflated labor market where employers hold bargaining power over employees.
During his four years in office, President Trump sought to reserve this corporatist trend by tightening the labor market to hike U.S. wages for the lowest of earners and transferring bargaining power to American workers who could bid for jobs rather than employers bidding for workers.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.
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