Green Card Avalanche

For all the debate over illegal immigration and border security, a lesser-discussed phenomenon may have as big an impact on jobs and the character of the country — legal immigration.

Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., on Monday highlighted the large tide of foreigners coming into the United States through permanent residency, or receiving their green cards.

Sessions, a leading critic of U.S. immigration policy, pointed to projections that the country will grant green cards to some 10.5 million foreigners during the next decade under current law.

That is more than the entire population of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina combined.

The country will grant green cards to some 10.5 million foreigners during the next decade under current law. That is more than the entire population of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina combined.

“The lion’s share of these visas are for lesser-skilled and lower-paid workers and their dependents who, because they are here on work-authorized visas, are added directly to the same labor pool occupied by current unemployed jobseekers,” a news release from Sessions’ office states. “Expressly because they are admitted into the U.S. on legal immigrant visas, most will be able to draw a wide range of taxpayer-funded benefits, and corporations will be allowed to directly substitute these workers for Americans. Improved border security would have no effect on the continued arrival of these new foreign workers, refugees, and permanent immigrants — because they are all invited here by the federal government.”

Roy Beck, founder of NumbersUSA, a non-profit that advocates for lower immigration levels, said Sessions confirms his organization’s longstanding call to reduce immigrant quotas.

“The report just reminds us that the status quo is an extraordinary flow of foreign workers into the United States,” he said. “It’s really out of proportion to out historical averages.”

NumbersUSA advocates cutting legal immigration to 500,000 people per year, eventually reducing that number to 300,000.

Sessions, chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Immigration and the National Interest, referred to statistics indicating that the federal government has granted permanent residency to an annual average of 1.05 million over the past five years.

Sessions argued the policy has two primary effects:

• Millions of immigrants each year get permanent work authorization and access to federal welfare programs, programs like Social Security and Medicare, as well as the ability to obtain immigration on behalf of their relatives.
• Those immigrants increase the supply of workers, driving down wages for American workers.

Immigration quotas are set by federal law and can be changed by Congress at any time.

“However, unlike other autopilot policies — such as tax rates or spending programs — there is virtually no national discussion or media coverage over how many visas we issue, to whom we issue them and on what basis, or how the issuance of these visas to individuals living in foreign countries impacts the interests of people already living in this country,” Sessions said in the release.

Since 1970, the foreign-born population has quadrupled, to 42.1 million.

After a surge of immigrants in the late 19th century, Congress put the brakes on legal immigration in the early 20th century. The foreign-born population fell from 10.8 million in 1945 to 9.7 million in 1960 and 9.6 million in 1970.

In 1965, though, Congress substantially increased low-skill workers. Since 1970, the foreign-born population has quadrupled, to 42.1 million.

Sessions argued that the increase in immigration has deflated wages. He pointed to statistics showing that real mediate compensation in the United States grew by more than 90 percent from 1948 to 1973.

“By contrast, real average hourly wages were lower in 2014 than they were in 1973, four decades earlier,” he said in the release.

Yet, the immigration reform proposed by the so-called “Gang of Eight” in the Senate would have increased green cards to 30 million over the next decade, Sessions noted — more than 11 times the population of Chicago.

“It is worth observing that the 10 million grants of new permanent residency under current law is not an estimate of total new immigration over the next decade,” Sessions stated. “In fact, the increased distribution of legal immigrant visas tend to correlate with increased flows of immigration illegally: The former helps provide networks and pull factors for the latter.”

According to projections by the U.S. Census Bureau, the country’s foreign-born population will reach one in seven by that end of the decade. By 2036, it will hit one out of every six people living in the United States.

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