Recently, NumbersUSA issued a statistic based on the latest data from the US Department of Homeland Security which so shocked and angered me that I have repeated it in several recent Op-Ed pieces.
Let me say it again: Our government is permitting 138,000 immigrants to enter the US LEGALLY EVERY MONTH.
"Why 138,000?" you ask. According to the Department of Homeland Security:
That adds up to an annual rate of 1,657,266 new foreign workers (not counting illegal workers) added to our economy.
There are no indications that the pace has slackened. If it continues, DHS will issue an average of 138,000 new work permits and green cards to working-age adults each month this year. (Arithmetic courtesy NumbersUSA.)
The cost of those illegal aliens here presently is mounting to huge proportions. For example, in a study just released on January 14th, done by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), we learn that the cost to the state of North Carolina per year is over $1 billion. And this level of costs is replicated or exceeded in many other states around the US.
I am pleased to report that on February 2, NumbersUSA with the Coalition for the Future American Worker launched the above "elevator ad" in an extended nationwide educational campaign on cable TV. You can view it here.
According to NumbersUSA CEO, Roy Beck:
"The purpose of the ad is to inform the public of two government statistics that, when placed together, show an outrageous participation of our federal government in increasing the numbers of unemployed Americans."
He cites these well known statistics:
Now, all of these well known organizations working for patriotic immigration reform have been working diligently to educate our leaders to what to anyone but a cretin or a greed-crazed politician understands: the idiocy of passing a trillion-plus-dollar stimulus package—which Obama purports will add 3 or 4 million new American jobs—while allowing the importation of 1.5 million foreign workers per year to take those jobs.
I have looked in the several papers I regularly read for signs of this 138,000 figure and have yet to see it. Lou Dobbs on CNN has mentioned it, but to my knowledge no one in the print media has.
No wonder newspapers are going down the tubes.
Have our Congress and our new President no shame? How can they not act, at the very least to approve the extension of E-Verify, the government's method of giving employers a quick confirmation of whether or not a job applicant is here legally. This system works 99% of the time as Lou Dobbs reported on his TV program on February 2, 2009.
Beck points out that
"U.S. immigration policies are on automatic pilot. It doesn't matter how terrible the economy becomes—it doesn't matter that more than 11 million Americans are looking for a job and can't find one. No matter what, businesses can still seek to cut their labor costs by bringing in as many foreign workers as they did when the economy was booming."
Of course, the TV ad which umbersUSA is running (it aired on Lou Dobbs) on 2/2 will not move these viciously unresponsive leaders unless we scream, scream, scream.
It is unbelievable at a time like this that our Federal officials have lost sight of the obvious. They are asking American citizens to let them continue to print money to save the economy, which is in trouble because of their indifference and mismanagement, coupled with the greed and power of big business. And then they are not willing to enact legislation that can really help American citizens.
Talk about impeachment….that's too good for these reprobates. We want, demand and expect a substantial moratorium on immigration, the extension of E-Verify. And we want these simple acts of sanity NOW!
Donald A. Collins [email him], is a freelance writer living in Washington DC and a former long time member of the board of FAIR, the Federation for American Immigration Reform. His views are his own.
