A member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights on Tuesday wrote a letter to President Donald Trump urging him not to agree to an amnesty deal for so-called “dreamers” unless it includes significant concessions.

Peter Kirsanow, who also is a member National Labor Relations Board, wrote that any deal involving participants in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program should include a commitment to fund a border wall, mandate use of the E-Verify system, and pass a bill to curtail legal immigration.

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Passage of the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act or something like it would have negative consequences without offsetting measures, Kirsanow wrote in the nine-page letter.

“Such grant of legal status, without immigration enforcement, will likely disproportionately harm unskilled American workers, particularly lower-skilled African-Americans, by making it more difficult for them to obtain employment and depressing their wages when they do obtain employment,” he wrote. “The increased employment difficulties will likely have negative consequences that extend beyond the economic sphere.”

DACA has been on the front burner since Trump announced that he would end the quasi-amnesty program in March. Some 690,000 illegal immigrants brought to America as children are enrolled in the program, which protects them from deportation and grants them documents allowing them to work legally in the United States.

The Trump administration has concluded that the previous administration exceeded its constitutional authority in creating the program. But Trump has expressed interest in a congressional remedy. After meeting with Trump last week, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) reported that they had agreed on the principles of a DACA deal that did not include border wall funding.

Trump responded to blowback from his base by backpedaling.

Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies, said it is significant that a member of the Civil Rights Commission would take it upon himself — he was not speaking for the commission as a whole — to voice his opposition to amnesty for DACA enrollees.

“It is interesting,” she said.

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Vaughan said it makes sense, however, for people concerned about economic opportunities for Americans to be considering the issue. She said Americans, particularly those without college degrees, end up competing for “scarce jobs” with illegal immigrants.

“It starts with being able to work,” she said.

“Giving amnesty to illegal immigrants would only exacerbate this problem facing low-skilled men, who are disproportionately African-American.”

In his letter, Kirsanow cited expert witnesses who testified at a 2010 Civil Rights Commission hearing about the impact of illegal immigration.

“Illegal immigration has a disparate impact on African-American men because these men are disproportionately represented in the low-skilled labor force,” he wrote.

Kirsanow pointed to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics that the August unemployment rate for blacks was 7.9 percent, more than twice the rate for whites. He wrote that the economy has a “glut” of low-skilled workers.

“The country’s economic woes have disproportionately harmed African-Americans, especially those with little education,” he wrote. “Eight years into the economic recovery, African-Americans face particular difficulty obtaining employment.”

Kirsanow also wrote that there are fewer jobs available in traditionally male-dominated industries.

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“Giving amnesty to illegal immigrants would only exacerbate this problem facing low-skilled men, who are disproportionately African-American,” he wrote. “The dearth of job opportunities gives these men less confidence in their ability to support a family, and gives women reason to fear that these prospective husbands will be only another mouth to feed.”

Mandating that businesses use the now-voluntary E-Verify system to check the work authorization of potential employees would mitigate the impact of an amnesty, Kirsanow wrote. He added that same goes for passing the Reforming American Immigration for Strong Employment (RAISE) Act, a proposal that would favor immigrants with education and job skills and curtail so-called “chain migration.”

As for border security, Kirsanow cited Hungary as an example of how walls can be effective. Migrants entering the European country from neighboring Serbia fell from 391,000 to 18,236 in 2016 and 1,184 so far this year following construction of a border wall.

(photo credit, homepage and article images of protests: Molly Adams, Flickr)