Now comes John Judis, of Even the Obamaphilic New Republic, who criticizes the effect of not just the guest worker plans but also the bill’s central provision, granting 11 million illegal immigrants
near-immediate legal “registered provisional” (RPI) status. Judis cites Investors Business Daily, arguing that employers will actually have an incentive to hire these newly-legalized immigrants over Americans because the immigrants won’t come with either Obamacare or its attendant employer mandates and fines:
Some might downplay the Obamacare loophole
by arguing that RPIs and farm workers take jobs that American citizens
aren’t willing to do in the first place. A story in National Journal was headlined,
“Left and Right Agree: Immigrants Don’t Take American Jobs.” When a
Judiciary Committee witness warned that the bill could affect native
jobs and wages, particularly among African Americans, South Carolina
Senator Lindsey Graham, one of the Gang of Eight, responded that “there
are certain parts of this economy [where] you’re not going to find an
American worker.”
But this argument is wrong. As a Center for Immigration Studies
report has shown, most
jobs thought to be filled only by immigrants are, in fact, filled by
a majority of native-born Americans. That includes 64 percent of
grounds-maintenance workers, 66 percent of construction laborers, 73
percent of janitors, 51 percent of maids and housekeepers, and 63
percent of butchers and meat processors. Even on farms, the
native-born constitute at least a third of the workforce. What seems to
have misled people like Graham is that many of the workers in these
occupations are Hispanic—Graham has reported finding only “Hispanics” at
some South Carolina workplaces—but Hispanic citizens make up a growing
percentage of the American working class … [E.A.]
report has shown, most
jobs thought to be filled only by immigrants are, in fact, filled by
a majority of native-born Americans. That includes 64 percent of
grounds-maintenance workers, 66 percent of construction laborers, 73
percent of janitors, 51 percent of maids and housekeepers, and 63
percent of butchers and meat processors. Even on farms, the
native-born constitute at least a third of the workforce. What seems to
have misled people like Graham is that many of the workers in these
occupations are Hispanic—Graham has reported finding only “Hispanics” at
some South Carolina workplaces—but Hispanic citizens make up a growing
percentage of the American working class … [E.A.]
Of course,
the 11 million undocumented workers are already here, and will no
longer be subject to the most egregious kind of exploitation, but they
will also no longer be segregated into specialized parts of the labor force and will instead be thrust into the mainstream labor market, where they will compete with native-born workers. [E.A.]
,
the 11 million undocumented workers are already here, and will no
longer be subject to the most egregious kind of exploitation, but they
will also no longer be segregated into specialized parts of the labor force and will instead be thrust into the mainstream labor market, where they will compete with native-born workers. [E.A.]…
P.S.: Judis has now written this basic piece twice. I urge him to follow the advice of the late Richard Strout, New Republic’s long time TRB columnist, and “write
every piece three times”–a not-very-challenging standard this blog
surpassed months ago. (Strout was also both a liberal and a consistent
immigration skeptic.)
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