The Quote Below—More Misinformation from the Media
“Democrats blame Republicans for the fact that Congress has not passed a major immigration reform bill since the immigration and control act of 1986 — 37 years ago.
“While Republicans have opposed the legalization programs Democrats have tried to establish, that doesn’t mean that every Republican is opposed to legalization. In fact, according to the Pew research center, 37 percent of Republicans view . . . a legalization program for most of America’s undocumented immigrants as an important goal. . . .
“[But], Democrats could have tried harder to get Republican cooperation. . . . The Biden administration has been particularly bad in this respect, releasing more than an estimated 2 million undocumented immigrants into the country. . . .
“However, I think such a deal is possible.
“First, propose a legalization program that is based on America’s employment needs instead of on the needs of immigrants who are living here in violation of our laws.
“The U.S. Chamber of Commerce says that America is experiencing a major labor shortage. . . . Unfilled jobs in these industries range from 35 percent to 60 percent. The American Immigration Counsel says that we need more immigrants to meet our labor demands.
“If the legalization programs Democrats have advocated were to meet those needs, it would be mere happenstance. Migrants who come here illegally have their own reasons for coming. No one knows what percentage of them are qualified for jobs in the industries that are experiencing labor shortages. An employment-based legalization program could be limited to undocumented immigrants in the U.S. who can meet those needs. . . .
“A legalization program based directly on America’s labor needs such as I have outlined above wouldn’t provide lawful status for all of the undocumented immigrants the Democrats want to legalize, but it might attract enough Republican support to pass a major legalization bill for the first time in almost four decades.” – An Immigration Reform Deal That Could Actually Pass, Noland Rappaport, Opinion Contributon, The Hill, 6/15/23 [Link]
Fact Check of Above Quote: This article maintains that Republicans and Democrats can reach a compromise on immigration legislation. It would consist of Democrats accepting measures to secure the border in exchange for Republicans accepting mass amnesty for illegal aliens. Alas, that’s already been tried, and it didn’t work. A perfect illustration is the 1986 immigration act mentioned in the article. It proposed security in exchange for amnesty, but only the amnesty side of the bargain was fully kept. The enforcement parts were delayed for years, or never happened at all. The failed deal came about because many Democrats and some Republicans only wanted the amnesty.
Today the prospects for such a deal are even worse because most Democrats don’t even want to pay lip service to border control—which they claim is “racist.” If they went back to that lip service, maybe they could garner enough Republican support to repeat their win of 1986. But they won’t because their ideological dogmatism keeps them from even pretending. On their side, many Republicans—having been fooled once—are not about to repeat the mistake. They insist on effective in-place border control before they will discuss amnesty—if they are willing to discuss it at all.
Nevertheless, we have a number of Republicans today, as in 1986, who have little problem with amnesty and lax border control. These are adherents of the Chamber of Commerce, which this article cites as a credible source about our country’s alleged “labor shortage.” What the Chamber really means is that we have a shortage of cheap and exploitable labor. This expressed need stems primarily from the Chamber’s greed. Profits gained by a cheap labor immigration policy come at the expense of decent wages and working conditions for U.S. workers, both native-born and foreign-born.
This article is correct that we need major legislation to overhaul