American workers are looking at a Blue Christmas and a not-so-prosperous New Year, thanks to open-borders Santas in the Democratic Party.
Among other factors, a record wave of immigrants competing for jobs has helped drive down wages. The U.S. working class has been abandoned by Democratic Party leadership, which in years past used to champion folks like them.
Instead of hope and respect, they’re getting troublesome change and pedantic lectures from Democratic elites. U.S. senator and prospective presidential aspirant Kamala Harris, D-Calif., faithfully recites the party line: “We are a nation of immigrants. And we have to stop vilifying and criminalizing whole populations of people because they came and arrived here from south of the border.”
This is a far cry from the party’s principles of not so long ago.
Walter Mondale, the Democrats’ presidential nominee in 1984, once declared: “My basic complaint is that we have a massive poverty population coming into the country virtually every day from Mexico. If you could prevent that illegal rush of labor coming across the border, the bargaining power of U.S. citizens and permanent resident aliens would rise dramatically.”
It is no coincidence that average hourly U.S. wages (inflation-adjusted) have flat-lined since 1978, as illegal immigration ramped up. According to the Pew Research Center, some 8 million illegal aliens are in the workforce, filling up to a quarter of the jobs in agriculture, construction, production, services and transportation. This is work that would otherwise go to unemployed or underemployed Americans.
As the late Rep. Peter Rodino, D-N.J., noted: “The illegal alien displaces American workers, depresses wages, burdens the welfare rolls, and taxes local, state and federal government by use of medical facilities at public charge.”
Contrast these concerns – more pronounced now than ever — with the unctuous rhetoric of newly minted presidential hopeful Beto O’Rourke. The Texas Democrat demands “a path to work, family reunification and citizenship” for all immigrants, refugees and asylum-seekers.
Back in the day, Rodino sponsored legislation to punish employers of illegal aliens. It passed the House twice, but failed to advance in the Senate. This points to a two-party problem that persists today, when a commonsense E-Verify worker-verification bill cannot even get out of a committee in the Republican controlled House.
While GOP lawmakers splinter on immigration, congressional Democrats, taking the House reins in January, oppose every border- and worker-protection proposal from President Donald Trump.
Democrats’ intransigence prompted Wall Street Journal columnist Jason Riley to remind party leaders this week: “A majority of voters have views on border security that are much closer to Mr. Trump’s. Ask Hillary Clinton.”
Barbara Jordan, the Texas Democrat who chaired the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform from 1994-1996, said, “It is both a right and a responsibility of a democratic society to manage immigration so that it serves the national interest.”
Now her party’s leaders have turned that logic on its head as they subordinate the interests of U.S. workers to the imagined “rights” of illegal aliens to compete for jobs (and even qualify for welfare benefits). Such political posturing mocks the rule of law, undermines job security and cheapens citizenship.
Not much of a Christmas present for American workers, or anyone else who cares about American sovereignty.