How to Increase Illegal Immigration - WSJ Editorial

[question everything]

For years immigration restrictionists have claimed that they love immigrants and merely oppose illegal entry. Apparently that was a bait and switch. Trump’s first big restrictionist bill proposes to cut legal immigration by as much as half to 500,000 people or so a year.

Mr. Trump on Wednesday endorsed legislation that aims to restrict “chain” family immigration and replace employer-sponsored green cards with a point-based system. Current policy “has placed substantial pressure on American workers, taxpayers and community resources,” said Mr. Trump. How shrinking the number of workers in an economy that already has a record 5.7 million job openings is a mystery he didn’t bother to explain.

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Senators Tom Cotton of Arkansas and David Perdue of Georgia have introduced legislation that would eliminate the green-card preferences for parents, adult children and siblings of U.S. citizens, which in effect would reduce legal immigration by 40%. Foreigners could also apply for up to 140,000 green cards via a government admissions process that awards points based on education, language ability, age, educational attainment and job skills.

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The problem is that the bill’s main purpose seems to be to slash the immigration rolls. In 2013 Mr. Cotton wrote in these pages that “we should welcome the many foreigners patiently obeying our laws and waiting overseas to immigrate legally.” But under his bill the four million or so foreigners who have been waiting in the green-card line for years would have to reapply under the new system.

While the legislation is supposedly modelled on immigration systems in Canada and Australia, both countries are far more welcoming of foreigners. Australia admits three times as many immigrants per year than the U.S. as a share of population. Canada accepts more than twice as many, and concierges help fast-track the process for high-skilled workers.

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Mr. Trump and the restrictionists argue the legislation will reduce the welfare rolls while protecting U.S. workers from competition. But that’s another misdirection play. Legal residents who aren’t citizens don’t qualify for most entitlement programs, and their labor participation rate is higher than that of U.S. citizens.

As for the argument that “low-skilled” immigrants are displacing U.S. workers, what economy are they living in? The U.S. jobless rate in July fell again to 4.3%, and employers in a myriad of industries including construction, agriculture and hospitality are facing a severe labor shortage.

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The larger irony is that by restricting legal immigration Mr. Trump would increase the incentive for more foreigners to cross the border illegally or overstay their visas. The solution, as ever, is a legal immigration system that is generous with visas and flexible enough to meet the demands of a growing U.S. economy. If the White House is serious about passing something in Congress, it needs to recognize that reality.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-to-increase-illegal-immigration-1501888489

(googling the title sometimes allows reading the complete article)

[rickford66]

1. By Trump's logic, professional pay would suffer also.

Legal professional immigrants would probably work for lower wages to get that golden "Green Card". Those of us who have worked in large engineering firms have seen this practice already for years. Corporations place ads specifically tailored for one foreign person so that no US citizen could possibly match the job description.