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Link – Amnesty Lowers Wages, Increases Illegal Immigration
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- Link – Amnesty Worker Displacement, Lowers Wages
- Link – Amnesty Worker Displacement, Burdens Federal Budget
- Link – Amnesty Harms Education
Link – Amnesty Lowers Wages, Increases Illegal ImmigrationAmnesty would have a number of negative effects on including depressing wages and encouraging more illegal immigration. Smith 9 (Rep. Lamar, ranking member on the House Judiciary Committee, June 29 2009, USA Today, NEWS; Pg. 8A, LexisNexis Academic) TJN Granting amnesty would increase illegal immigration. Since Congress passed the last "one-time" amnesty in 1986, the number of illegal immigrants in the U.S. has jumped to more than 12 million. Amnesty sends the message that if you just get into the country, even illegally, you can stay indefinitely. Amnesty rewards illegal immigrants with the right to live and work in the U.S. That is unfair to the millions of legal immigrants who play by the rules, wait their turn and come in to the U.S. the right way. And selling amnesty to lawbreakers for the price of a fine would demean the value of the greatest honor our country can bestow: citizenship. To achieve immigration reform, the choices are not just amnesty or mass deportation. A strategy of "attrition through enforcement" would dramatically reduce the number of illegal immigrants over time. If the federal government enforced our immigration laws, especially those that target the employment of illegal workers, many illegal immigrants would simply return home because they can't get jobs. Others would never come to the USA in the first place because they would not be hired. A Zogby poll in 2006 found that a majority of voters prefer this approach over others. Amnesty would cost Americans their jobs, depress wages, burden taxpayers and encourage even more illegal immigration. On the other hand, enforcing immigration laws would increase respect for the rule of law and reduce illegal immigration. Link – Amnesty Worker Displacement, Lowers WagesIllegal immigrants have displaced millions of US workers—an amnesty would displace more and keep wages low for Americans Ruark 10 [Eric, Director of Research of Federation for American Immigration Reform, March 2010, http://www.fairus.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=22563&security=1601&news_iv_ctrl=1761] There are approximately 7.5 million illegal aliens in the U.S. workforce and their presence has driven down wages and conditions for American workers, particularly those who have only a high school diploma or less, since they are the ones who directly compete with illegal aliens for jobs. An amnesty would not add significant numbers of new workers to the labor market, at least not in the short term: Illegal aliens are already here and have already displaced millions of American workers and reduced the earnings of millions more. What an amnesty would do is to sanction the actions of those employers who hired illegal aliens at the expense of native workers, and reward those who entered the U.S. illegally and may have committed other crimes (including felony identify theft or fraud) in order to work without authorization. It would also keep wage levels artificially low for millions of low-skilled American workers. Link – Amnesty Worker Displacement, Burdens Federal BudgetAmnesty puts a huge burden on taxpayers by unloading millions of workers onto government programs Ruark 10 [Eric, Director of Research of Federation for American Immigration Reform, March 2010, http://www.fairus.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=22563&security=1601&news_iv_ctrl=1761] On the other hand, the cost to native workers and U.S. taxpayers was enormous. While amnesty did not appreciably improve the economic situation for amnesty recipients, it did open up to them the panoply of government assistance programs. An estimate of the net cost to U.S. taxpayers ten years after amnesty was $78.7 billion, with 1.87 million workers displaced over that time. Worst of all, 1986 only set the stage for a massive increase in illegal immigration to the United States and the expectation by a powerful coalition of special interest groups that the federal government would forever abjure its responsibility to uphold immigration law. An amnesty would further crowd out native low-skilled workers and jeopardize social service budgets Ruark 10 [Eric, Director of Research of Federation for American Immigration Reform, March 2010, http://www.fairus.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=22563&security=1601&news_iv_ctrl=1761] An amnesty would have the direct opposite effect of what is needed to provide advancement opportunities for U.S. workers at the low end of the economic spectrum. The United States already has a surplus of low-skilled native labor. For those who compete directly against illegal aliens for jobs, the unemployment rates in January 2010 were 25 percent for teenagers, 15.6 percent for those with less than a high school diploma, and 10.5 percent for those with only a high school diploma. Not only would amnesty allow the beneficiaries total access to the U.S. labor market, it would also allow amnesty recipients greater access to welfare programs, further straining government budgets and jeopardizing benefits available to low-income natives. Link – Amnesty Harms EducationAmnesty would harm education. Smith 8 (Rep. Lamar, senior Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, October 9 2008, The Washington Times, OPED; A23, LexisNexis Academic) TJN In fact, amnesty for illegal immigrants would sabotage nearly every priority of the Chamber of Commerce. Take education. According to its Web site, the Chamber endorses improvements to K-12 education. But giving amnesty to illegal immigrants would lead to more overcrowded classrooms, resulting in a poorer education for the children of U.S. citizens and legal immigrants alike. The chamber has also said it supports increased access to higher education for American students. Yet, illegal immigrants take places in colleges and universities that would normally go to U.S. citizens and legal immigrants. Download 0.75 Mb. Share with your friends:
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