Obama Administration Decision to Defer Deportations Hurts Unemployed Americans

This column first appeared on FoxNews.com.

Three years into a jobs Depression the Obama Administration again turned its back on unemployed Americans. The Department of Homeland Security announced it will individually review the 300,000 cases of illegal aliens currently holding deportation orders in an effort to appease his pro-amnesty critics. With this move illegal aliens will become eligible to receive work permits and compete with 22 million Americans who can’t find a full-time job.

The Administration has come under fierce opposition from pro-amnesty groups for its record number of deportations, despite its policy of focusing on only criminal illegal aliens. President Obama, now in full campaign mode, apparently has bought into the idea that millions of illegal aliens are potential votes in the future.

Although public anger at 30 years of mounting illegal immigration has driven officials into a political stance of pledging to try to stop future illegal immigration, few have shown even an ounce of interest in opening up at least 7 million jobs for unemployed Americans by moving illegal aliens out of those jobs.

Illegal aliens living in the United States typically don’t apply for work permits for fear of deportation, but under the new policy, they could apply for work permits if granted deferred action or parole. The President appears willing to do almost anything to make sure that illegal workers remain in this country, remain in their jobs and remain available for an amnesty and the right to vote some day.

This is a jobs issue and the president is taking sides, putting illegal aliens ahead of unemployed Americans. With his “jobs” speech next month the President can turn the economy around with three simple steps. He could:

Open up the 8 million U.S. jobs (more than 7 million of them non-agricultural jobs) held by illegals and make them available to unemployed and underemployed workers by requiring every business to use E-Verify.

End chain migration, the primary source of the 125,000 foreign workers the U.S. imports every month.

End the Visa lottery, where 55,000 American jobs are raffled to the world each year.

The decision by President Obama to defer deportation and grant work permits while millions of unemployed Americans are looking for work is distressing. It sends a message to the 22 million Americans who can’t find a full-time job that the next election is more important than their future.

Roy Beck is the Founder & CEO of NumbersUSA