Based on their public comments and actions, it is clear that the business interests that support comprehensive immigration reform hold American workers in extremely low esteem and that they all too frequently take an anti-American approach when it comes to hiring and retaining workers.
In order to garner the support of business, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and others who support comprehensive immigration reform had to craft a bill that 1) allows businesses to hire foreign workers rather than American workers and 2) that eliminates the need for American employers to help Americans develop the skills necessary to do the jobs available. This is a fundamental shift in corporate responsibility and is a major threat to the future of America's middle class.
A number of common, anti-American-worker themes run through the positions that advocates of comprehensive immigration reform take:
- American workers can't cut it.
- American workers are unproductive.
- American workers deserve to lose their jobs to illegal aliens.
- High-tech employers must have access to large numbers of qualified foreign workers.
Rubio's Office – American Workers Can't Cut It
In an interview with the New Yorker, Rubio's aides provided a candid insight into how his office views American workers.
[RYAN LIZZA]. Well their [labor's] argument is, what, that they have American workers for these jobs, they don't need this program.
RUBIO AIDE 1. Yeah. I mean, one of the problems you have with this, "Oh, there's American workers who are unemployed." There are American workers who, for lack of a better term, can't cut it. There shouldn't be a presumption that every American worker is a star performer. There are people who just can't get it, can't do it, don't want to do it. And so you can't obviously discuss that publicly because—
RUBIO AIDE 2. But the same is true for high-skilled workers.
RUBIO AIDE 1. Yes, and the same is true across every sector, in government, in everything.
Utah State Legislator — American Workers Are Unproductive and Spoiled Rotten
In 2011, Utah State Rep. Bill Wright, a Republican, sponsored the Salt Lake Chamber's guest worker bill (HB116) in the Utah state legislature. According to the Salt Lake Chamber, HB116 is a model for the nation and many of the elements of HB116 can be found in S.744, which is strongly supported by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
When presenting his bill, Wright argued that employers have the right to hire the most productive workers regardless of where they come from or how they get to the United States.
It's about productivity. We as a people aren't productive anymore, so we're going to require employers to hire people who aren't productive? … This isn't a conservative principle.
In addition, Wright said that American workers are unable to compete with illegal aliens: "In certain fields, we're not as productive, that's why it's difficult for us to compete with them [illegal aliens]. … We're spoiled rotten."
And, according to Wright, Americans mistakenly believe that jobs should go to them and not to illegal aliens who are committing multiple felonies (Social Security fraud, forgery, perjury on I-9 forms, identity theft) just to get their jobs.
The anger and rancor actually comes from those who think they have an employment entitlement. There is a great mentality in our society about entitlement.
We talk about welfare entitlements, health care entitlements, food entitlements and home-loan entitlements. There's a segment out there that feels because they were born in America, they're entitled to the jobs, whether they perform or are productive or not.
This is about labor entitlement. There's no question that unauthorized workers are more productive in their current jobs than the labor entitlement group. I think that's contrary to common sense in business. We shouldn't have to employ people at certain levels who are not productive.
Faith Leaders — Fire Non-Productive American Workers, Retain Illegal Aliens
Robert Gittelson, co-founder of Conservatives for Comprehensive Immigration Reform, which lists many prominent evangelicals among its participants, echoes the position taken by Rubio's aides and by Wright. It doesn't matter to Gittleson and his "compassion"-driven associates that American workers who lose their jobs also lose their health insurance and their homes when they can no longer make their mortgage payments.
The undocumented that still have jobs, are employed because they are the best workers at their respective companies. During this deep recession, virtually all companies have cut back their workforce to their best and most productive workers, and by doing so, hope to weather the economic storm and survive. ...
However, many [Americans] were laid off because they were not deemed to be among the best and most productive workers at their downsized companies, or perhaps because they lacked seniority. Some were fired because they were not good workers. The Restrictionists would have us fire good, experienced, and proven – albeit undocumented workers, and replace them with citizen trainees that cannot find jobs in their respective fields, and are theoretically willing to take jobs picking fruit, making hotel beds, or manufacturing products, until the economy expands, and they can get a better job.
High-Tech Elites – Hire Highly Qualified Foreign Workers
High-tech leaders take much the same position as Rubio, Wright, and Gittelson. They see workers from around the world as their potential employees and consequently they hold no allegiance to American workers.
Gordon Hanson, professor of economics at the University of California, San Diego, told the Seattle Times that high-tech firms "[A]re merely trying to assemble the best teams they can from a worldwide talent pool — a reasonable approach in a global economy."
And according to Reuters:
While the Senate Judiciary Committee was working on the bill in May, business groups threatened to withdraw their support if senators did not loosen requirements that would have required them to recruit Americans before foreigners.
Based on the above, it is apparent that business interests and their allies who support comprehensive immigration reform don't believe that Americans can compete in the new worldwide employment market and they are ready to cast them aside without an iota of compassion for them or their families.
Rather than helping educate, train, and mentor American workers, the proponents of comprehensive immigration reform want to permanently replace them with individuals who have entered the country illegally and committed multiple job-related felonies (Social Security fraud, document forgery, perjury on I-9 forms and identity theft). And if that were not enough, they also demand that millions more foreign workers be allowed into the country to replace still more American workers and to take many of the jobs throughout the economy that young people trying to get into the workforce so badly need.
The allegiance of those behind comprehensive immigration reform is to themselves, not to citizens of the United States or to its middle class economy. Rather than writing Americans off, supporters of comprehensive immigration reform should treat them with respect and help them to achieve the American dream. And elected officials should help Americans be self-reliant and productive rather than encouraging them to be dependent on the state when jobs go to foreign workers.
