The CHIPS Act was hailed as bringing the vitally important semiconductor industry to the United States. Part of the benefit sold to taxpayers footing the bill on this $50 billion+ investment was that it would create jobs for Americans. While that sounds like a good bargain, the industries gaining tax credits and Federal grants have started singing the old “labor shortage” tune.
The polarization of both the House and Senate has made it largely impossible to pass legislative overhauls without some parliamentary chicanery. Obamacare, Trump’s tax cuts, and Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act were all passed under the budget reconciliation process which allows a simple majority in the Senate to bypass the legislative filibuster. For anyone serious about stopping the border crisis that is engulfing the nation in a state of emergency, it is time to use the coming spending fight to force broad reform of the immigration system.
A better system, in accordance with the concept of "self-control," would honor our immigration tradition and preserve Americans' - all Americans' - abilities to reach those serene places our nation has been blessed with.
The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) has a new report examining the free-fall in Department of Labor (DOL) investigations into farmworker abuse, which dropped to a record low of 879. 879 closed cases when hundreds of thousands of H-2A employees are working every year. This continues the trend of “see no evil, hear no evil” of the Trump Administration, when only 1,036 cases were closed annually.
Enrique Balcazar, 37, and Elizabeth Balcazar, 21, operators of Balcazar Nature Harvesting, LLC (BNH), were sentenced in Federal court for using the H-2A agricultural visa program to import forced labor. Enrique received 40 months in prison along with fines, and his daughter received time served and fines. BNH was fined approximately $508,000 in restitution to 55 H-2A employees.
The rise in unemployment always seems to surprise the "experts," most of who also call for immigration increases to grow the labor force. Maybe they haven't thought these things through.
Andrea Flores, an immigration policy advisor under both Presidents Obama and Biden, is going to tell us how to fix the immigration system. Apparently, letting everyone enter the country with employment authorization is the correct answer to driving down the illegal entries.
Secretary Mayorkas of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) says the border is secure and that we have operational control. President Biden has also said the border is secure repeatedly, when he has not dismissed the border crisis as "seasonal." However, a growing list of states, cities, and counties across the country are declaring states of emergency to deal with the fall out from the Biden/Mayorkas "secure” border. The latest state to declare an emergency is Massachusetts.
As part of NumbersUSA's expanding push on states to take action to combat the huge increase in illegal immigration, our National Conference of State Legislatures exhibit centered on E-Verify. With a successful effort in Florida to expand the use of E-Verify, there's a growing momentum in state capitols across the country.
Stop me if you've heard this one before: The United States is suffering through a labor shortage. Our nation's captains of industry simply cannot find Americans with the grit and determination necessary to complete an honest day's work. Because of this alleged deficiency in the American workforce, our government must open the floodgates and import vast numbers of foreign workers to fill the gaps.