By Brandon Moseley
Alabama Political Reporter
U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R), released a written statement on Wednesday after a new Center for Immigration Studies report was released showing that on net, all employment gains in the U.S. since 2000 have gone to immigrants rather than native-born workers.
Sen. Sessions said, “This study underscores that the economic problem facing America right now is not too few workers but too many unemployed workers. The Senate immigration bill massively increases the supply of lower-skill foreign workers, which would produce lower wages and higher unemployment. Polls clearly show the American people don’t support such an approach. The challenge for the House will be to chart a different course and focus on getting more of our workers off of welfare, off of unemployment, and into good jobs with rising wages. Such a policy would clearly be in the best interests of the nation.”
According background material provided by Sen. Sessions office: The Center for Immigration Studies report breaks down the impact immigration, both legal and illegal, has had on American workers and the extrapolates how the recently passed Senate immigration bill would compound these economic issues.
Sen. Sessions office’s statement says that, “The CIS’ analysis of government data refutes the argument that workers are in short supply in the U.S. In fact, 1.3 million fewer native-born workers have jobs than in 2000, while 5.3 million more legal and illegal immigrants are employed. All of the net job gains over the past 13 years have gone to immigrants.”
According to CIS between 2000 and 2013, there has been a decline in work among native-born citizens affecting high school dropouts, those with a bachelor’s degree, and every educational background in between. The impact affects U.S. workers of every age, men, women, blacks, whites, and Hispanics.
Sen. Sessions office said that the, “Evidence does not support the idea that large-scale immigration necessarily creates job opportunities for native-born citizens.”
According to the CIS report from 2000 to 2007, immigration levels were high, but the share of U.S. workers with a job actually dropped despite a growing economy. In 2008 the economy plunged into the Great Recession. The recovery has been slow and unemployment remains high. From 2008 to the start of 2013, an estimated 5.4 million new immigrants arrived. Sen. Sessions office says that the evidence supports the position that large-scale immigration can produce slow job growth and declining wages among native-born American citizens.
The Senate immigration bill would double the number of temporary guest workers and provides for more than 30 million grants of permanent legal immigrant status over the next 10 years. This would be a tripling of the number called for under current law.
To read the CIS report:
Senator Jeff Sessions is a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and has been a vocal opponent of the comprehensive immigration reform bill passed by the Senate last week.
