THE DEMOCRATS' VISION OF AMERICA: 49 MORE MEXIFORNIAS
Pelosi: More Migration Is ‘The Best Thing … for Our Economy’
Congress can best help the American economy by importing more lower-wage, lower-skill workers for companies that would otherwise hire Americans and invest in high-tech machinery, according to House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi, (D-CA).
“Right now, the best thing that we can do for our economy is to have comprehensive immigration reform,” she told Capitol Hill reporters on Friday, adding:
We have a shortage of workers in our country and you see even in Florida, some of the farmers and the growers saying, “Why are you shipping these immigrants up north — we need them to pick the crops down here.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi: "We have a shortage of workers in our country—and you see even in Florida—some of the farmers and the growers are saying, 'Why are you shipping these immigrants up north? We need them to pick the crops down here.'" pic.twitter.com/aHIQC0WZAS
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) September 30, 2022
“When you import cheap labor, you take away the incentive for businesses to raise wages,” countered Art Arthur, a former immigration judge who now works for the Center for Immigration Studies. “So long as you have a steady supply of cheap labor, you don’t make the sort of investments in training and infrastructure that you would otherwise,” he added.
The U.S. government has long allowed the illegal migration that pressures farm companies to shamefully exploit stoop labor by tough, underpaid, hard-working migrants:
RT UFWupdates: Susana works at Pacific Triple E tomatoes in Merced, CA. Workers pick an average of 280 buckets per day & make some of the best wages in the industry under their #UFW contract. #WeFeedYou #Calor #Overtime4FarmWorkers pic.twitter.com/EsltERj26b
— Pier (@Pierovic01) September 13, 2018
Overseas, many governments downgrade migration and prefer to pressure companies to invest in modern productivity-boosting equipment. The equipment allows both companies and employers to earn more money each day.
In Italy, for example, some companies use harvesters instead of imported stoop labor to pick tomatoes:
Israel accepts few migrants and instead is developing high-tech glasshouses and robots:
After the shock of President Donald Trump’s low-migration, high-wage policy, more U.S. companies are buying high-tech farm gear to pick tomatoes and fruit:
Even in California, where the government has helped to push up the wages of farm workers, producers are increasingly using machines to raise the productivity of their workers:
Other companies are trying to develop machines that allow a few people to pick even more tomatoes. In Kentucky, for example, researchers at AppHarvest are developing robot pickers for use in huge greenhouses:
Pelosi also claimed that Americans have a moral duty to help migrants, whatever the cost to their fellow Americans, saying “We also have a responsibility to recognize the importance of newcomers to our nation.”
She added:
When the President — the former, well, occasional occupant of the White House who preceded President Biden — when he had the ban on Muslims, everybody came forward. Our military, our diplomats, our faith community … came forward and said the refugee resettlement program of the United States is the highlight of our humanitarianism … It is. We have a responsibility to accept some of these people.
“Our nation is great because we are a nation of immigrants,” she insisted, echoing the 1950s narrative that the United States is really a “Nation of immigrants,” not a nation of Americans.
“Productivity is really the key,” countered Arthur. He added:
The more productive workers are, the quicker that [economy] grows. Right now, we’re at an extremely low labor participation rate because we have [many millions] of Americans who should be working, but aren’t. In fact, we’re getting pretty close to the low percentages that we saw back during the Great Recession of 2008 when people just couldn’t find jobs. And when working-age men, in particular, aren’t working, that leads to any number of societal ills.
Easy migration reduces business pressure to improve Americans’ schools, Arthur added:
If employers were dependent upon the schools to produce graduates who were ready, willing, and able to join the workforce, they would demand that those schools provide a better education. But because of the high levels of immigration, legal and illegal, they don’t have to do that. That consigns kids to generational cycles of poverty.
Many polls show the public wants to welcome some immigration. But the polls also show deep and broad public opposition to labor migration and the inflow of temporary contract workers into jobs needed by young U.S. graduates.
This “Third Rail” opposition is growing, anti-establishment, multiracial, cross-sex, non-racist, class-based, bipartisan, rational, persistent, and recognizes the solidarity that American citizens owe to one another.
Pro-migration groups are trying to win cheap labor and amnesty laws during the lame-duck session after the election.
“A negative ruling from 5th Circuit on #DACA -[Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals] could impact nearly 700k [migrants] …. jeopardize their ability to work legally and possibly put them at risk of being separated from their families,” said a tweet from the FWD.us, an advocacy group created by billionaire investors including Bill Gates, Eric Schmidt, and Mark and Priscilla Zuckerberg.
“Congress must act this year,” said the tweet, which ignored President Joe Biden’s policy of halting nearly all deportations.
The issue is bubbling up because a federal court in Texas is expected to block the award of work permits to the younger illegals by President Barack Obama.
FWD.us funds many of the progressive groups that tout amnesty and visa-worker programs. The high-profile DACA fight helps FWD.us protect its investor priorities, including the continued annual inflow of more than 250,0000 subordinate visa workers into the Fortune 500 jobs needed by U.S. professionals and their families.
“DACA has been threatened in the past, but the current case ahead of the 5th Circuit Court is the most severe threat to date,” FWD.us president Todd Schulte, told NBCNews.
The media outlet coyly described FWD.us as “a bipartisan political organization that advocates for progressive immigration reform.” The staff of the FWD.us group tries to hide the identity of the wealthy investors who founded and funded the group. But copies exist at other sites.
The chance of a lame-duck amnesty is rising fast, in part because the Senate GOP has agreed to pass a short-term spending bill that must be replaced with another spending bill before a new Congress is sworn in during January.
Pro-American GOP advocates warned months ago that the scenario would allow retiring GOP Senators — such as Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) or Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO) — to betray Americans by pushing cheap-labor deals with businesses and Democrats just before they exit.
Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, speaks to reporters after a luncheon with Senate Republicans at the Capitol in Washington, on Thursday, Aug. 5, 2021. (AP Photo/Amanda Andrade-Rhoades)
Huge changes in immigration laws can be created by very brief legislative language, which can be hidden from the public in complex end-of-year budget bills as corporate media outlets focus on other drama.
Additional advocacy groups are working to pass a cheap labor bill for agriculture companies.
In this March 8, 2021, photo, Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO) holds a news conference at Springfield-Branson National Airport as he announces he will not seek a third term in the U.S. Senate in 2022. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
A pending farm bill would exempt farm companies from the U.S. labor market by giving them a pipeline of foreign workers. The pipeline would minimize marketplace pressure to hire Americans or invest in American-made farm robots.
The bill would also allow farm companies to pay their foreign workers with a combination of low wages and the deferred bonus of U.S. citizenship. The bill would also reward the huge prize of citizenship to the sector’s current workforce of several million illegal migrants.
Farm-sector executives met recently to plan a post-election push, according to a September 28 report in the produce industry news site, ProductBlueBook.com:
The House of Representatives already passed the Farm Workforce Modernization Act, which provides an effective solution for the agriculture labor crisis. It was supported by nearly all Democrats, which control the House, and about 30 Republicans. Now the Senate must pass the bill, and with the parties split at 50-50, it would take at least 10 Republican Senators to vote for it to get to a filibuster-proof majority.
During a September 27 education session at the [Washington D.C. business] conference, speakers conceded that a bill before the mid-term elections in November was impossible, which means they’re working toward a vote between the election in the new Congress in January, in what’s called the “lame duck session.”
“It’s our best strategy, but it’s not a ‘can’t-lose’ strategy,” said Chuck Connor, president, and CEO of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives.
So far, the bill has been held up by unspoken opposition from GOP Senators amid opposition from mainstream voters and activists in Idaho who fear it would hollow out many towns and communities.
Overall, legal and illegal migration prevents tight labor markets and so it shifts vast wealth from ordinary people to investors, billionaires, and Wall Street.
The tilted market for labor makes it difficult for ordinary Americans to advance in their careers, get married, raise families, or buy homes.
Extraction migration slows innovation and shrinks Americans’ productivity. This happens because migration allows employers to boost stock prices by using stoop labor and disposable workers instead of the skilled American professionals and productivity-boosting technology that earlier allowed Americans and their communities to earn more money.
Business groups need to get support from at least 10 Republican senators to pass an amnesty. One likely backer is Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC).
On September 22, RollCall.com reported:
Tillis said in a brief interview last week that the lame-duck period after the midterm elections would be the most likely time for Congress to take up any legislation on green card relief. He also said he sees increasing interest for such proposals in the Republican caucus.
“When you see the labor participation rates and you hear from various industries, and it’s agriculture, hospitality, leisure, construction trades. I mean, we’ve got chronic shortages and they have been sustained,” Tillis said. “So I don’t see how any reasonable person can get to a solution to the problem without this being a key part of it.”
Democrats are eager for a lame-duck amnesty. For example, Sen. Alex Padilla, (D-CA) has drafted a bill that would amnesty every migrant who stays in the United States for seven years. “If something terrible comes out of the Fifth Circuit [in the DACA decision], I think it could be an issue in November,” Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), told NBC News.
But GOP legislators need some political cover before they can vote for an amnesty. So President Joe Biden may offer token changes on the border to help GOP Senators disguise the giveaway to business interests.
“Not a single one of us — or at least me, I won’t speak for my colleagues — will unless we fix the underlying problem with border security,” Tillis said during a September hearing about bills to fill American healthcare jobs with cheap and compliant foreign nurses.
Wildcard Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) also suggested she would back a lame-duck push for amnesty, according to NBC News:
“The reality is that we have to address both our security needs and our workforce needs,” she said Monday in a speech at the McConnell Center. Referring to Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, she added, “And I hope to be able to partner with my friend John and deliver something in the next few months or a couple of years.”
Sinema and Cornyn have jointly drafted a border bill that could accelerate migration through the border.
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