Welcome Back Carter: U.S. workforce participation rate collapses to level not seen since 1979.
So why again do we need millions of foreign workers added to the labor market?
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by John Hill
Stand With Arizona
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Even Obama-defenders admit it: this morning's employment number was a "punch to the gut". So said former Obama chief economic adviser Austin Goolsbee on CNBC.
No way to spin it. Job gains were only 88,000 - below even the lowest Wall St. estimate of 100k - the biggest miss in estimates since December 2009, and the lowest job growth in 10 months. Worse still was the collapse in the labor force participation rate, which declined to 63.3% - the lowest since the depths of the Jimmy Carter abyss in 1979.
These are depressing stats, to be sure. But beyond that, they also undermine the rationale for proponents of "comprehensive immigration reform" to introduce more than 10 million illegal aliens into the legal workforce, and to add on top of that an additional 400,000 in low-skilled foreign workers every year.
Why should we add millions of foreign laborers and illegal alien- many with criminal records - to the labor market at a time when we have a record number of Americans on welfare and food stamps?
Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) said it best...
"We have a group of our Senators meeting in secret....plotting right now to pass us an 'immigration reform' plan...You know what they tell us? 'We've got to have more foreign workers.' Yet we've never had more people on welfare, never had more people on food stamps..."
And of course millions of Americans - particularly poor whites, Blacks and legal Hispanics - are already out of work because they are being squeezed out of the labor market by illegal aliens in the workplace. And that is before any illegal alien amnesty.
So if we really want to create jobs, wouldn't we be focused on reforming welfare, cracking down on illegal aliens in the workplace, and securing the borders instead of diluting wages by importing millions more foreign workers? Of course. Yet the Obama Administration is instead watering down work requirements under welfare; has slashed workplace enforcement by more than 70%, and border security is a mere afterthought for the architects of amnesty.
This morning's job numbers should be a wake-up call to all Americans and their representatives in Washington. SLOW DOWN. Take a real look at how the tens of millions of illegal aliens are harming American workers, and take real steps to make sure businesses cannot flout existing laws and hire illegal alien workers without consequences. America needs national E-Verify, Arizona-style employer sanctions with teeth, real border security, full funding of the Secure Fence Act (2006); and tightened up rules for welfare to put more Americans back in the workforce.
Finally, let's take a look at what's happening in our neighbor to the South. Mexico's economy is doing just fine. Their unemployment rate in February was 4.85% - near our best rate in the past 20 years. Mexico is the 10th richest nation on Earth, with a state-owned oil and minerals monopoly, state-owned tourist beaches, and boasts the world’s richest man, Carlos Slim Helú. How is Mexico able to do so well? Because they export their poorest citizens to the United States - their outsourced welfare state. And those workers take jobs from Americans and legal immigrants, but also drain our social services - with 57% of illegal alien Mexicans on at least one form of welfare. And not only does Mexico drain our economy by inundating us with its poorest, but its also reaps the benefits from those workers in America. Mexico gets back a staggering $25 billion annually in “remittances” – cash sent back from its illegals who work (and collect welfare) in the U.S.
Why are we continuing to subsidize the Mexican economy with open borders, and an open labor market for their lawbreaking citizens? And why on Earth would we make the situation even worse with amnesty for 20+ million illegal aliens?
Let's get America back to work, and stop helping Mexico's economy at the expense of our own.
