Thursday, July 16, 2009
WSJ: BLAME THE EMPLOYER
The Wall Street Journal takes the Obama Administration to task for focusing immigration policy on more employer enforcement:
The broader issue is that the Obama Administration, like its predecessor, has accepted the premise that the key to curbing illegal immigration is a crackdown on employers. That premise is false. Our illegal workforce results from a government policy that severely limits foreign access to U.S. labor markets.
Illegal immigration to the U.S. has been falling primarily because the economic downturn has reduced demand for labor. Last year net migration from Mexico fell by half. But as our economy inevitably revives, so will domestic demand for foreign workers. If the Obama Administration and Congress want to prevent another spike in the undocumented population, they might use the current lull to lift the immigration quotas that drive illegal border crossings. What U.S. employers need is legal access to willing workers, not more red tape in the form of a federal worker-verification system.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 9:42 AM
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The broader issue is that the Obama Administration, like its predecessor, has accepted the premise that the key to curbing illegal immigration is a crackdown on employers. That premise is false. Our illegal workforce results from a government policy that severely limits foreign access to U.S. labor markets.
Illegal immigration to the U.S. has been falling primarily because the economic downturn has reduced demand for labor. Last year net migration from Mexico fell by half. But as our economy inevitably revives, so will domestic demand for foreign workers. If the Obama Administration and Congress want to prevent another spike in the undocumented population, they might use the current lull to lift the immigration quotas that drive illegal border crossings. What U.S. employers need is legal access to willing workers, not more red tape in the form of a federal worker-verification system.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 9:42 AM
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