George W. Bush Says U.S. Needs More Foreign Workers to Take Jobs as 16.6M Americans Unemployed

Former President George W. Bush says the United States needs more foreign workers to take American jobs, even as nearly 17 million Americans are unemployed.

During an interview with the Today morning show, Bush said President Joe Biden’s administration ought to increase legal immigration levels to fill American jobs with more foreign workers as the U.S.-Mexico border is overwhelmed with skyrocketing illegal immigration.

“We need to change the work visas,” Bush said. “There are a lot of jobs that are empty and there are a lot of jobs that need to be filled. And yet there are people willing to work hard to do so … a combination of those two would help alleviate some of the border.”

Already, the U.S. annually admits about 1.2 million legal immigrants on green cards to permanently resettle in the country. In addition, another 1.4 million foreign workers are admitted every year on visas to take American jobs.

Despite Bush’s claims, research has continuously debunked business talking points that suggest the U.S. has a shortage of workers and that there are jobs Americans refuse to do.

A study from 2018, for instance, by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), reviewed 474 occupations in the U.S. workforce and found that none are totally dominated by illegal or legal immigrants. In only six of those 474 occupations are illegal and legal immigrants the majority of workers — just one percent of the total workforce.

In exclusive statements to Breitbart News, Republican staffers on Capitol Hill described Bush as an irrelevant globalist who did not represent the GOP’s base of voters or the majority of those in elected office.

“Republicans are well aware that his presidency was a national disaster on this issue as he failed to act when needed. Bush immigration policy has no impact today other than a reference on what not to do,” one House GOP aide said.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.