On yesterday’s Your World, former INS agent Michael Cutler argued that immigration reform would cost Americans jobs. Stuart Varney started by briefly arguing the other side: “They say 11 million illegals in this country are doing jobs that Americans do not want to take. So if you pass immigration reform, it doesn’t cost Americans jobs. What do you say?” That allowed Cutler to open the floodgates of fear mongering.
Cutler said:
Well, first of all I think it’s a lot more than 11 million, I think it’s about 30 or 40 million. And, you know, we saw it in 1986. I was an agent for 30 years. I had a front row seat to the ‘86 amnesty. If you give lawful status to a bunch of illegal aliens who are being exploited, guess what? They will no longer be willing to be exploited. They will demand to be paid on the books. They will have the right to expect that they will be treated equally as Americans, but more importantly, they will have an equal standing in a labor pool that’s already unable to find work. An alien who is naturalized or given employment authorization legally cannot be discriminated against, so they can get the same jobs that Americans desperately need to avoid losing their homes to foreclosure. It makes absolutely no sense.
…This is an American issue Stuart. I mean, look: you came here legally, and I’m sure you cherish the fact you’re here. My mother may she rest in peace came legally. This isn’t about keeping people out of the United States. It’s about first of all not having a negative impact on Americans who are out of work or underemployed.
…The immigration laws were designed for two purposes, protect our lives and protect the jobs of American workers. Comprehensive immigration reform would fly in the face of both of those goals. We would wind up providing competition for Americans who can ill afford it, and we would also compromise national security. …It makes about as much sense to provide millions of illegal aliens with lawful status and employment authorization when Americans can’t find work as it would to drill extra holes in the bottom of your boat if you found your boat already had a hole in it.”
In fact, an analysis by the Social Security Actuary came to quite a different conclusion. Washington Post reports:
The most important finding, for the purposes of the debate, is that the Gang of Eight immigration reform proposal would create 3.22 million jobs by 2024, and boost GDP by 1.63 percent. “We estimate a significant increase in both the population and the number of workers paying taxes in the United States as a result of these changes in legal immigration limits,” the analysis says.
But instead of adding that information, “fair and balanced” Varney smiled and said “We hear you.”
It’s a scary world out there! Would Americans work at jobs they don’t like for wages they can’t make a living on?! Well, if you don’t work for Fux & if you’re not the 1% you should lower your expectations. It’s the only way to keep taxes lower than ever before!!!
And that’s not even addressing the issue of how higher wages paid to more people on the books would probably reduce the burden of taxation on taxpayers as a whole. Cutler’s a fool or a tool. Or both: after all, he’s on Fox, isn’t he. Nuff said.
And maybe former agent Cutler might want to address the problems seen by many states (such as Alabama) which decided to pass “anti-immigration” laws that were nothing but harsh, punitive action against undocumented workers. One of the big results was the loss of tens of thousands of farm workers, and many Alabama farmers complained that they were forced to let produce just rot in the fields because they couldn’t get documented workers to work for the paltry wages being offered.
I do love how the FoxNoise brigade *ALWAYS seem to forget that the laws in EVERY state are supposed to prohibit the hiring of illegal aliens—or other undocumented workers—and that companies which do so knowingly (and, really, does anyone think any of these companies are doing it *un*knowingly?) are supposed to be punished by heavy fines. But when was the last time we ever heard about the employers actually being prosecuted and fined for hiring undocumented workers?
