Great summary of how immigration (legal and illegal) is NOT a partisan issue. The uniparty worked together for 50 years to ensure that, no matter who was in power, the border would never really be enforced.
The Left got their sacred victims who they were convinced would vote Democrat for 2 generations.
The Right got its cheap labor to undercut American wages.
And then a man named Donald Trump came down an escalator. I'm not the biggest fan of Trump, never MAGA and always a reluctant voter for him, but on this and so many other issues, Donald Trump won because he was willing to call a spade a spade, to say what no one else would. And on this 1 particular issue, he has delivered.
But the uniparty is just waiting for 2028 so they can get the good-times rolling again. That's the problem with EOs.
The illegal immigration spike started in 2019 after Trump had been in office for over 2 years. Until we have a strong economy with low illegal immigration the problem has not been solved. I hope Trump strengthens the economy but all of his policies have weakened an economy that was at the end of a business cycle.
Tariffs and his deficit increasing tax cut for the wealthy and his immigration crackdown and his blunder in Iran…basically everything he has done has weakened the strong Biden economy.
You are welcome. As I detail in the "Back of the Hiring Line" history, Jordan's commission was the third bipartisan federal commission since 1965 to recommend an annual numerical cap to protect American wages and especially to make room in the hiring lines for U.S. populations that were disproportionately left out of the job market. Jordan's conclusions were in line with the majority of studies during the 1990s. The tech industry's lobbying tipped the political scales, and successive Congresses have presided over loose labor policies that have contributed to smaller and smaller percentages of working-age American men in the labor force at all.
It is more than a little ironic that this appears as 60K North Africans have arrived in a small Spanish enclave in a little over 24 hours. All it took to spark the sea of unexpected humanity was a non citizen amnesty by the Spanish government and a weeks old Spanish Supreme Court ruling , that migrants arriving by water could not, immediately, be turned back.
News reports detail 60K people using streets as bathrooms and the same fountains being utilized for both bathing and drinking. As Americans amuse themselves with endless Taco Bell lettuce jokes, imagine the health risks and the lasting environmental impact of 50K people lacking bathrooms, water and food.
Panic is beginning to ensue parts of Europe, with both France and Italy sending troops to their borders, as they threaten closures. Germany isn't far behind. Meanwhile, the surge is not slowing. The vast majority of new arrivals are young and male. Strict Spanish gun laws leave residents mostly defenseless, especially women. The possibilities for a mass violent criminal activity, boggle the mind.
The chaos should be a warning to the global Open Borders crowd and Americans preaching US amnesty. The implications of a nation's immigration policy do not end at their border, sometimes policy can, inadvertently, dissolve them.
Why no mention of the Simpson-Mazzoli Act? The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA) as it was officially named. Reagan's amnesty of 2.7 million illegal immigrants. It was Reagan's huge amnesty of millions that really hurt the working class for the first time. Suddenly millions of illegal workers became legal.
Republicans have historically been much worse, they love bringing in low wage workers to drive labor into the poor house and destroy unions. They are still here. Why do we have no immigration legislation when Republicans control both houses in the presidency? Because the business lobby doesn't want any bills, just yesterday the Republican governor of Ohio was screaming to open the border again for low wage workers.
Democrats have made amnesty their defining issue, I doubt there is enough support for labor to protect the jobs of American workers when the people who finance both parties want low wages.
You are exactly right that the 1986 Act -- which I referenced in the listing of "the anti-worker immigration mistakes of the 1965, 1986, and 1990 immigration laws" -- was disastrous for the lower-working class, building on the even larger wage-depression of the 1965 Act. "Back of the Hiring Line" provides the back stories.
The Clinton economy was great for the working class in general and factory workers in particular. A few textile workers the Carolinas lost jobs but the Carolinas have had arguably the strongest economy outside of Texas and Silicon Valley since the 1990s.
I found this article interesting since I had no idea that wage suppression had been connected to immigration years ago. It shows how focused the business elite have been on burying the truth. Makes one wonder who's funding ideas like open borders.
Canada is finally trying to get its immigration rate under control. The amount of nonsense that high immigration doesn't affect wages, housing affordability and medical availability has been ridiculous.
Message to Roy. I had been a donor to Numbers USA since '97. They were successful in fending off the amnesties in '07 and '13 but failed abysmally in playing offense and reducing illegal immigration.
As the Overton Window moved due to Trump in '16 and then the resurrection of X as a free-speech platform, Numbers' approach looked increasingly anachronistic to me. It's common on the restrictionist right now to cite all sorts of negative social capital arguments including even things like reduced native birth rates in the presence of diverse environments. Talk of demographic change is not only no longer taboo but is commonplace, at least on X.
Unfortunately, Numbers raison d'etre for opposing high immigration levels were 1) the environment and 2) 100 y/o Booker T Washington beefs about black worker displacement due to European immigration. A few years ago as the new era dawned, I reached out to Numbers and suggested that since black folks and environmentalists both don't really care about immigration anymore, maybe they should expand their repertoire to include other deleterious impacts. They didn't and I don't support the organization anymore. Sorry Roy.
"Back of the Hiring Line" is indeed in the heart of NumbersUSA's key mission to educate on the historic advantages of lower immigration numbers that allowed for a tight labor market and increased labor participation (and incomes) for all parts of the nation's population, especially the descendants of American slavery who have been most abandoned in the last half-century of federal loose-labor policies.
Great summary of how immigration (legal and illegal) is NOT a partisan issue. The uniparty worked together for 50 years to ensure that, no matter who was in power, the border would never really be enforced.
The Left got their sacred victims who they were convinced would vote Democrat for 2 generations.
The Right got its cheap labor to undercut American wages.
And then a man named Donald Trump came down an escalator. I'm not the biggest fan of Trump, never MAGA and always a reluctant voter for him, but on this and so many other issues, Donald Trump won because he was willing to call a spade a spade, to say what no one else would. And on this 1 particular issue, he has delivered.
But the uniparty is just waiting for 2028 so they can get the good-times rolling again. That's the problem with EOs.
Yes so true. Spot on.
The illegal immigration spike started in 2019 after Trump had been in office for over 2 years. Until we have a strong economy with low illegal immigration the problem has not been solved. I hope Trump strengthens the economy but all of his policies have weakened an economy that was at the end of a business cycle.
What Trump policies have weakened the economy?
Tariffs and his deficit increasing tax cut for the wealthy and his immigration crackdown and his blunder in Iran…basically everything he has done has weakened the strong Biden economy.
I learned so much reading this article, especially about Barbara Jordan. She made a LOT of sense. Thank you for taking the time to educate us.🙌🏾
You are welcome. As I detail in the "Back of the Hiring Line" history, Jordan's commission was the third bipartisan federal commission since 1965 to recommend an annual numerical cap to protect American wages and especially to make room in the hiring lines for U.S. populations that were disproportionately left out of the job market. Jordan's conclusions were in line with the majority of studies during the 1990s. The tech industry's lobbying tipped the political scales, and successive Congresses have presided over loose labor policies that have contributed to smaller and smaller percentages of working-age American men in the labor force at all.
Dare I say that the downstream effects have been absolutely disastrous? Omg.
It is more than a little ironic that this appears as 60K North Africans have arrived in a small Spanish enclave in a little over 24 hours. All it took to spark the sea of unexpected humanity was a non citizen amnesty by the Spanish government and a weeks old Spanish Supreme Court ruling , that migrants arriving by water could not, immediately, be turned back.
News reports detail 60K people using streets as bathrooms and the same fountains being utilized for both bathing and drinking. As Americans amuse themselves with endless Taco Bell lettuce jokes, imagine the health risks and the lasting environmental impact of 50K people lacking bathrooms, water and food.
Panic is beginning to ensue parts of Europe, with both France and Italy sending troops to their borders, as they threaten closures. Germany isn't far behind. Meanwhile, the surge is not slowing. The vast majority of new arrivals are young and male. Strict Spanish gun laws leave residents mostly defenseless, especially women. The possibilities for a mass violent criminal activity, boggle the mind.
The chaos should be a warning to the global Open Borders crowd and Americans preaching US amnesty. The implications of a nation's immigration policy do not end at their border, sometimes policy can, inadvertently, dissolve them.
Why no mention of the Simpson-Mazzoli Act? The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA) as it was officially named. Reagan's amnesty of 2.7 million illegal immigrants. It was Reagan's huge amnesty of millions that really hurt the working class for the first time. Suddenly millions of illegal workers became legal.
Republicans have historically been much worse, they love bringing in low wage workers to drive labor into the poor house and destroy unions. They are still here. Why do we have no immigration legislation when Republicans control both houses in the presidency? Because the business lobby doesn't want any bills, just yesterday the Republican governor of Ohio was screaming to open the border again for low wage workers.
Democrats have made amnesty their defining issue, I doubt there is enough support for labor to protect the jobs of American workers when the people who finance both parties want low wages.
You are exactly right that the 1986 Act -- which I referenced in the listing of "the anti-worker immigration mistakes of the 1965, 1986, and 1990 immigration laws" -- was disastrous for the lower-working class, building on the even larger wage-depression of the 1965 Act. "Back of the Hiring Line" provides the back stories.
The Clinton economy was great for the working class in general and factory workers in particular. A few textile workers the Carolinas lost jobs but the Carolinas have had arguably the strongest economy outside of Texas and Silicon Valley since the 1990s.
The tradeoff was supposed to be comprehensive reform. Reagan got suckered.
I found this article interesting since I had no idea that wage suppression had been connected to immigration years ago. It shows how focused the business elite have been on burying the truth. Makes one wonder who's funding ideas like open borders.
Canada is finally trying to get its immigration rate under control. The amount of nonsense that high immigration doesn't affect wages, housing affordability and medical availability has been ridiculous.
Excellent, informative post - thank you, sir!
I've written on a related topic myself: https://substaquejacque.substack.com/p/black-and-brown-together?utm_source=publication-search
Message to Roy. I had been a donor to Numbers USA since '97. They were successful in fending off the amnesties in '07 and '13 but failed abysmally in playing offense and reducing illegal immigration.
As the Overton Window moved due to Trump in '16 and then the resurrection of X as a free-speech platform, Numbers' approach looked increasingly anachronistic to me. It's common on the restrictionist right now to cite all sorts of negative social capital arguments including even things like reduced native birth rates in the presence of diverse environments. Talk of demographic change is not only no longer taboo but is commonplace, at least on X.
Unfortunately, Numbers raison d'etre for opposing high immigration levels were 1) the environment and 2) 100 y/o Booker T Washington beefs about black worker displacement due to European immigration. A few years ago as the new era dawned, I reached out to Numbers and suggested that since black folks and environmentalists both don't really care about immigration anymore, maybe they should expand their repertoire to include other deleterious impacts. They didn't and I don't support the organization anymore. Sorry Roy.
"Back of the Hiring Line" is indeed in the heart of NumbersUSA's key mission to educate on the historic advantages of lower immigration numbers that allowed for a tight labor market and increased labor participation (and incomes) for all parts of the nation's population, especially the descendants of American slavery who have been most abandoned in the last half-century of federal loose-labor policies.