Immigration is a regulated process, the parameters and management of which reflect a nation's priorities and values. But to many people, immigration has become a value in and of itself, like love or justice. For them, anything less than "more" is mean.
On Thursday, Senator Ron Johnson (WI) introduced a brand-new approach to adding unnecessary foreign workers: state sponsored visas.
Reports indicate that American businesses seeking guest workers may be suffering from their own lack of skills or initiative. But it turns out that hiring domestic workers is a job Americans will do.
More evidence that the guest-worker solution has become part of the domestic hiring problem: Businesses tell Politico that the threat of audits might lead them to recruit American workers.
Saturday marks Pres. Donald Trump's 100th day in office, and immigration has been a key component of his 100-day agenda. Thus far, Trump has solely relied on his executive powers to stem the tide of illegal border crossings and beef up interior enforcement. And while he's taken some good first steps in addressing legal immigration, he's yet to take strong action on protecting American workers from the steady flow of cheap foreign labor that drives down wages and increases job competition for workers.
Most of the immigration talk over the last week has been about Pres. Trump's "border wall". Meanwhile, Congress continues to consider increases in H-2B visas for low-skilled foreign workers, and tens of thousands of American tech workers continue to suffer from flatlined wages and fewer job opportunities. Building the wall may have been Trump's most famous campaign pledge, but he also pledged to protect American workers from foreign worker competition.
Our immigration system has been constructed as if employers should never hire teenagers again. If Andy Puzder were a teenager today, he probably couldn't get a job at Baskin-Robbins -- much less be entrusted with opening the store.
When a mainstream media outlet calls for an end to Chain Migration, the debate over legal immigration is heading in the right direction. Earlier this week, the editorial board for the nation's largest newspaper, USA Today, offered a quasi-endorsement of Pres. Trump's proposal to move the legal immigration system away from favoring extended family connections and towards placing a greater emphasis on one's skills.
Pres. Trump called for making improvements to the E-Verify system in order to support a nationwide mandate in his 2018 budget request to Congress. Requiring all employers to use E-Verify is the top step in our 'Ten Steps to Fixing the Broken Immigration Enforcement System'.
Pres. Trump met with Sens. Tom Cotton and David Perdue on Tuesday to discuss the RAISE Act. The White House didn't offer an official endorsement, but both Senators report the President is open to the bill that would end chain migration and the visa lottery.