continued:
The second bonus would address the increasing concentration of income in this country. Greatly expanding our quotas for the highly skilled would lower wage premiums of skilled over lesser skilled. Skill shortages in America exist because we are shielding our skilled labor force from world competition. Quotas have been substituted for the wage pricing mechanism. In the process, we have created a privileged elite whose incomes are being supported at noncompetitively high levels by immigration quotas on skilled professionals. Eliminating such restrictions would reduce at least some of our income inequality.
As you read the preceding paragraph, I want you to stop and think about what he is really saying. It would certainly appear that his point is that by not bringing in more foreign workers, skilled workers are able to earn more money than unskilled workers.
What is wrong with that? Should a person who lacks an education and a trade earn the same money as someone who has a specific skill or education? He talks about a “privileged elite whose incomes are being supported at noncompetitively high levels by immigration quotas on skilled professionals.” He ends that paragraph by saying, “Eliminating such restrictions would reduce at least some of our income inequality.”
To what “income inequality” is Mr. Greenspan referring?
I can assure you that Mr. Greenspan was not discussing the CEOs of corporations who now earn as much as 400 times as much as those who are employed by their companies. He certainly did not discuss the so-called “Golden Parachutes.”
Mr. Greenspan concealed his insidious perspectives in language that obfuscated his beliefs. His goal is clear: if the United States would open up its borders to an unlimited flow of aliens, both legal and illegal, labor costs could be driven down and profits for corporations would be driven up.
It would almost appear that Mr. Greenspan believes that anyone who is not a CEO or high-ranking member of management should be earning little more than minimum wage, including those Americans who are highly skilled and even possess college degrees.
Traditionally, the middle class was comprised of those people who made economic progress by acquiring skills and education. This is what the “American Dream” was all about.
I return to my original premise and ask: how serious is the President about creating new jobs for Americans?
There’s an old expression: "A penny saved is a penny earned." You could change that saying to read, "A job freed up from a foreign worker is as good as a created job for a United States citizen."
If our government were to go back to the traditional concept of preventing foreign workers from taking the jobs Americans sorely want to have, our nation would be able to put more Americans back to work.
There would be an additional benefit to be gained by hiring American citizens and lawful immigrants to consider: The goal of foreign workers is to send as much money that they earn back to their families in their home countries. Each year, tens of billions of dollars are wired or otherwise transmitted from the United States to the countries from whence the foreign workers (legal and illegal) came. I have seen estimates that claim that more than $100 billion is sent out of our country by foreign workers. This is money that is not spent or invested in the United States, which would in turn create more jobs. When money leaves our economy, additional jobs are also removed from our nation's economy.
It is nothing short of common sense to understand that freeing up jobs through the effective enforcement of the immigration laws is anything but "anti-American," as some politicians have alleged.
It is time that Secretary of Homeland Security require that ICE agents not only seek to penalize the unscrupulous employers who intentionally hire illegal aliens but that the illegal aliens that are located during the course of these investigations be arrested and removed from the United States.
Let me also make something else as clear as I know how: The enforcement of the immigration laws is not about racism. Illegal aliens come from virtually every country on this planet. Illegal aliens are of every ethnicity and religion. Americans and lawful immigrants, who are losing their jobs and are unemployed or underemployed, are also of every ethnicity imaginable. This is not about race – this is about law. As an INS special agent I was concerned with just two categories of people – individuals who were citizens of the United States and individuals who were aliens.
The enforcement of the immigration laws is not about race or religion or ethnicity – it is purely about the law.
Family Security Matters Contributing Editor Mike Cutler is a Fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies and a recognized authority who addresses the implications of immigration on national security and criminal justice.
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