{"id":10064,"date":"2015-09-08T14:11:46","date_gmt":"2015-09-08T18:11:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/live-immigrationreform.pantheonsite.io\/?p=10064"},"modified":"2018-12-28T14:06:54","modified_gmt":"2018-12-28T19:06:54","slug":"how-about-real-protection-for-the-american-worker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2015\/09\/08\/how-about-real-protection-for-the-american-worker\/","title":{"rendered":"How About Real Protection for the American Worker?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a speech<\/a> given at a Labor Day rally, Hillary Clinton threatened to send American employers to jail for \u201cwage theft\u201d and praised President Obama for promoting \u201cpaid family leave\u201d:<\/p>\n

\u201cI was very proud that President Obama said today he is going to require federal contractors to provide seven days of earned paid sick leave… And he\u2019s going to fight for paid family leave, something that I\u2019ve been fighting for for 30 years and we\u2019re going to get it done.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

How about we also defend the American worker by revisiting our immigration policy and by holding American employers accountable?<\/p>\n

\"worker-635755_640\"We summarized in an issue brief<\/a> Harvard economist George Borjas\u2019 input on how immigration affects the American worker. Look at it from a supply and demand perspective, he said: immigration\u2019s supply of workers leads to the price of labor going down.\u00a0Conversely, in sectors of the labor market that are not significantly affected by the influx of immigrant workers, the price of labor goes up.\u00a0What Borjas teaches us is that the presence of low-skilled immigrant workers tends to lower the wages of American low-skilled workers. So, if we cared about the well-being of low-skilled American workers who are being hurt by additional competition, our immigration policy would be geared towards minimizing or stopping the entry of low-skilled immigrants.<\/p>\n

We also need to be tough on employers, but not the way Mrs. Clinton suggested. We must sanction employers who employ illegal aliens. One way to do that is by making the E-Verify program mandatory nationwide. This would limit the job magnet and empower states to impose penalties against employers who break the law by hiring illegal aliens.<\/p>\n

We at FAIR are committed to protecting the American worker, not just on Labor Day but every day. As we noted in our small guide<\/a> to making a case for real immigration reform, our primary concern is the well-being of America\u2019s native workforce\u2014especially our most vulnerable citizens who are hurt the most by additional competition from low-skilled immigrants.<\/p>\n

After all, stopping \u201cwage theft\u201d or promoting \u201cpaid family leave\u201d does not help those who do not have a job.