2021 Immigration Review & 2022 Outlook for Workers

Immigration was a significant part of the Biden administration’s agenda in 2021, irrespective of the minimized media attention it garnered.

These stories, however, covered top immigration news over the past twelve months, including executive actions, record border crossings, the administration’s focus on “root causes,” low polling, and amnesty in Build Back Better legislation.

2021 In Review:

• 2021 began with the Biden administration announcing its immigration agenda

Biden to propose overhaul of immigration laws on first day in office,” The Washington Post Jan. 18, 2021, Seung Min Kim

President-elect Joe Biden will roll out a sweeping overhaul of the nation’s immigration laws the day he is inaugurated, including an eight-year pathway to citizenship for immigrants without legal status and an expansion of refugee admissions, along with an enforcement plan that deploys technology to patrol the border.”

• Record border crossings ensued following waning enforcement and promises of amnesty

“At the border, a widely predicted crisis that caught Biden off guard,” The Washington Post, Nick Miroff, April 26, 2021

As experts had warned for months, a massive influx of migrants has arrived at the border in recent weeks, including a record number of teenagers and children traveling without their parents who need to be sheltered for weeks. Last month, 172,331 migrants were taken into custody by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the highest total in nearly 20 years.”

• Vice President Harris’s focus on “root causes” rather than “pull” factors

“Harris Visits The Southern Border After Trying To Keep The Focus Away From It,” NPR, Tamara Keith, June 25, 2021

Vice President Harris visited the U.S.-Mexico border Friday in El Paso, Texas, after weeks of badgering by Republicans and at the urging of some Democrats, and she called for an end to the political “finger-pointing” over who’s to blame for record numbers of people seeking asylum at the southern border…Harris is in charge of the thorny issue of migration from Central America at a time when the Biden administration has struggled to keep up with a surge in migrants.”

• Polling on the unpopularity of the Biden administration’s immigration positions:

“Bill Clinton Saved His Presidency. Here’s How Biden Can, Too.,” The New York Times, Mark Penn and Andrew Stein, Nov. 8, 2021

According to our October Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll, only 35 percent of registered voters approve of the administration’s immigration policies (which a majority view as an open-borders approach)…”

“Public is Concerned about Biden’s Handling of Immigration And Border Security,” AP-Norc Poll, April 5, 2021

While President Biden is getting high marks for how he is handling his job overall, the public is less supportive of his approach to immigration, border security, and particularly the influx of unaccompanied children seeking asylum.”

• Attempts to Push Through Budget Reconciliation Amnesty

“Senate parliamentarian rejects Democrats’ third attempt to include immigration in economic bill,” CNN, Daniella Diaz and Priscilla Alvarez, December 16, 2021

The Senate parliamentarian on Thursday rejected Democrats’ third attempt to include immigration in President Joe Biden’s economic bill, delivering a major blow to Democrats who have repeatedly sought to include immigration provisions in the Build Back Better bill…It’s the latest hit to the Biden administration’s immigration agenda and likely marks the end of the road for providing protections to millions of undocumented immigrants through the budget process known as reconciliation, which would not require GOP votes.”

In the end, the Senate parliamentarian and failed Build Back Better negotiations sank amnesty plans in 2021.

For 2022, the administration is poised to approach immigration measures couched in terms of “essential workers,” “competitiveness,” and “labor shortages.”

2022 Outlook for Workers

These stories, also from 2021, give more insight into the negative impact that immigration and legalization efforts will have on American workers:

“Opinion: ‘Build Back Better’ Immigration Provisions Will Cripple American Wages,” Prescott eNews, Robert Law, November 22, 2021

The prospect of an expedited green card and path to U.S. citizenship is the most lucrative fringe benefit an employer can dangle in front of a foreign worker. That inherently stacks the deck against Americans as foreign workers will rationally choose lower wages and working conditions in exchange for a permanent life in the United States. It is a win for the alien, a win for employers seeking a permanent supply of cheap foreign labor, and the clear losers are American workers who face the prospect of no longer being able to find jobs that cover mortgages, student loan debt, or otherwise support their families.”

“Biden’s H-1B Conundrum,” Politico,

I spoke with current and former H-1B holders, U.S. workers, union reps, academics, lobbyists, recruiters and immigration lawyers on both sides of the political spectrum. While they differed on the specifics, many said that the program is used not to fill labor shortages, as corporations insist, but to cut costs. Critics say that businesses regularly game the system to pay H-1B visa holders below market wages, both exploiting foreign workers and stacking the deck against American job seekers.”

“Black Farmworkers Say They Lost Jobs to Foreigners Who Were Paid More”

In the Mississippi Delta, a region of high unemployment and entrenched poverty, the labor mobility that is widening the pool of fieldworkers is having a devastating effect on local workers who are often ill-equipped to compete with the new hires, frequently younger and willing to work longer hours.”

Immigration Could Halt Economic Recovery for Workers in 2022

It is time for an economic recovery that fairly compensates American labor long overdue for real, lasting wage increases.

If skyrocketing inflation continues to outpace wage growth in 2022, legislators should focus on ensuring that workers secure wage gains and security rather than immigration policies aimed at suppressing labor costs for corporations.

In the December 2, 2021 “Wages Are Going Gangbusters in the U.S.—Elsewhere, Not So Much,” Wall Street Journal columnists James Glynn and Miho Inada acknowledged how immigration depresses wages:

The ability of workers to secure outsize pay increases could depend on how quickly countries that have kept Covid-19 cases low can reopen their borders and encourage immigration. An influx of foreign labor would put downward pressure on wage growth.”

While the H-2B visa cap was raised in 2021 (making it more difficult for some Americans to secure better opportunities and wages), overall legislative efforts to increase immigration were unsuccessful.

In 2022, will Washington let Americans secure pay increases, or increase immigration to curb the bottom line on labor costs?

LISA IRVING is the Volunteer Coordinator for NumbersUSA’s Media Standards Project