{"id":24128,"date":"2021-02-09T12:48:37","date_gmt":"2021-02-09T17:48:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/?p=24128"},"modified":"2021-02-11T05:27:36","modified_gmt":"2021-02-11T10:27:36","slug":"senators-vote-against-american-workers-immigrationreform-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2021\/02\/09\/senators-vote-against-american-workers-immigrationreform-com\/","title":{"rendered":"Senators Vote to Block Stimulus Checks for Illegals but Against Restricting Immigration Increases"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
After a marathon 15-hour vote-a-rama<\/a> , the U.S. Senate passed a budget resolution by a vote of 51-50, with Vice President Kamala Harris casting the tie-breaking vote. Because the Senate considered the bill under the budget reconciliation process<\/a>, Democrats needed only 51 votes to pass the legislation, opting to go it alone rather than work with Republicans on crafting a bipartisan package. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The budget reconciliation process\nallows members of the minority party \u2013 in this case, the Republicans \u2013 to\nintroduce as many amendments as they want to add to the bill. Often, these\namendments require the majority party to take votes on controversial\nlegislation. Many of the evening\u2019s 45 amendments ended in 50-50 party-line\nvotes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Republicans did manage to divide\nsome Democrats, however. One amendment proposed by Senators Todd Young (R-Ind.)\nand Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) would block stimulus checks from going to illegal\naliens. Initially, the amendment passed with eight Democrats voting with their\nRepublican colleagues in favor of this common-sense proposal: <\/p>\n\n\n\n Unfortunately, a later amendment by\nMajority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) reversed this earlier vote and stripped\nthe Young-Cotton amendment from the final bill. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Yet the amendment that immigration reform advocates should note is that of Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas). The Cruz amendment<\/a> to the budget resolution created \u201ca point of order against the consideration of any legislation that increases employment-based visas until the United States’ labor market stabilizes and unemployment levels reach pre-pandemic levels, ensuring that Congress prioritizes the needs of American workers who have lost their jobs due to the pandemic.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n In short, Senator Cruz\u2019s amendment would have made it harder to import more foreign workers until our labor force begins recovering from the economic consequences of the pandemic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Unfortunately, this amendment\nfailed by a vote of 40-60, with eight Republicans joining all 50 of their\nDemocratic colleagues in siding with foreign workers and their employers rather\nthan with struggling Americans: <\/p>\n\n\n\n Foreign workers depress wages and reduce opportunities for Americans. This is particularly true of the H-1B skilled guest worker and H-2B non-skilled guest worker programs. Multiple<\/a> studies<\/a> indicate that employers hire similarly-qualified foreign workers at wages significantly below what Americans earn despite performing the same roles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It is disappointing that this important amendment failed. Unfortunately, many of the same Republican senators who bemoan the effects of illegal immigration stay conspicuously silent when it comes to legal immigration and guest workers. The wage displacement of illegal aliens is similar to that of H-2B guest workers who work in landscaping, construction, and hospitality roles. H-1B workers further undermine the wages of white-collar Americans and college graduates. The point is, in terms of the negative economic impact of foreigners, it does not matter whether they came here illegally or whether they are guest workers \u2013 often, the result is the same. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It should be uncontroversial to\nstate that we need to pause legal immigration in its entirety until our\nunemployment rate returns to pre-pandemic levels. Unfortunately, the results of\nthe vote on Senator Cruz\u2019s proposed amendment reflect the sad reality that many\nsenators do not grasp the effect that even legalimmigration \u2013 not just\nillegal immigration \u2013 has some effect on the wages and opportunities of\nAmerican citizens. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" After a marathon 15-hour vote-a-rama , the U.S. Senate passed a budget resolution by a vote of 51-50, with Vice President Kamala Harris casting the tie-breaking vote. Because the Senate considered the bill under the budget reconciliation process, Democrats needed only 51 votes to pass the legislation, opting to go it alone rather than work<\/p>\n