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Concerns About the Effects of Immigration and Foreign Labor on Domestic Employment |
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CONCERNS ABOUT THE EFFECTS OF IMMIGRATION
AND FOREIGN LABOR ON DOMESTIC EMPLOYMENT
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PAUL E. KANJORSKI
OF PENNSYLVANIA
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
May 6, 2004
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Mr. Speaker, I rise today to address an issue about which many of my constituents are increasingly concerned: namely, the effects of immigration and foreign labor on our domestic job markets.
It is no secret that the American economy has lost 2.6 million jobs since President Bush first took office in 2001. My home state of Pennsylvania has been one of the hardest hit in this area, losing over 135,000 manufacturing jobs in the last three years.
This destructive trend has also begun to expand into other sectors of our economy as companies seeking to cut costs have started shifting engineering, technology, and other service-related jobs to places such as China, India, and the Philippines. Moreover, my constituents are increasingly troubled by the decisions of many American employers to bring foreign workers to the United States in record numbers. As a result of these developments, many Americans are either losing their jobs to cheap foreign labor, both at home and abroad, or are accepting lower wages due to the huge influx of domestic foreign workers, both legal and illegal.
In these matters, I am very concerned about the failure to enforce effectively our immigration policies and prevent illegal immigration. In addition to the millions of legal immigrants already residing in the United States, experts now estimate that ten to fifteen million additional illegal immigrants now live here with roughly another 500,000 added yearly. The huge increase of foreign workers moving to the U.S. in recent decades has occurred because of our weak and short-sighted immigration policies.
Mr. Speaker, our immigrant heritage, in my view, has helped to make the United States the greatest nation in the world. It is, however, at least equally, if not more important, that we do all we can to protect American workers, citizens, and taxpayers from the costs and potential security risks associated with illegal immigration. The President's recent proposal on immigration unfortunately falls considerably short of achieving real reform. Consequently, the Congress needs to rethink our immigration policies and develop a long-term, workable plan for addressing these important matters.
While I support keeping an appropriate level of legal immigration, we must put an immediate halt to our tacit approval of those who flaunt our laws and come here illegally. We must also ensure that a sufficient number of temporary work visas are available in selected areas, such as nursing, agriculture, and tourism, but only where an adequate supply of domestic workers is not available. Finally, we must ensure that current American workers are not losing their jobs or being forced to survive on depressed wages because we are voluntarily importing far more foreign workers than we need through legal and illegal immigration.
In sum, Mr. Speaker, we need to restore the balance between protecting American workers and promoting effective immigration policy. We must also correct our flawed immigration policies in order to protect national security and promote economic growth at home for the benefit of both current U.S. workers and future generations of Americans.
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