The latest Carolina Journal Online Friday interview with UNC law professor Hiroshi Motomura, which covered the concept of treating immigrants as “Americans in waiting,” generated the following response from director Ron Woodard of N.C. Listen:
Thanks for taking time to talk with me about the author and the book, Americans in Waiting. The assimilation of legal immigrants is one aspect of immigration. But the two most important aspects of immigration, which have the most serious consequences to our national interest, are the number of immigrants we allow into America and the fact that would-be immigrants must obey the law in the process. The number of immigrants really does matter.
Currently we accept approximately one million legal immigrants each year in America. In addition, approximately 600,000 illegal immigrants arrive [net increase over those who leave] each year. Seventy-five percent of legal immigrants have a high school education or less, with most having less. Illegal immigrants are overwhelmingly poorly educated and low-skilled. In essence we are importing poverty to America on a large scale. Also there is no good way to attempt to assimilate this many people. The last time we allowed this many immigrants to America as we have since the 1970’s, was from the 1880’s to the early 1920’s. This was referred to as the great wave and the era of the robber barons. Americans then demanded of their politicians that the number of immigrants be reduced, and it was. Mass immigration today is driving down the wages of low-skilled Americans, who in most cases are already the working poor. Most recent immigrants are doing jobs that have nothing to do with the global economy, and one can’t spread pinestraw or clean a room or build a house over the internet. Without mass immigration, low-skilled Americans would be paid a higher wage and be better able to cover their cost of living. Why should mass immigration be used to “game” our private enterprise system to the benefit of cheap labor advocates who want subsidized labor. They get cheap labor and the citizens pickup the social services costs and actually receive no real benefits to this scheme. Less than ten percent of all immigrants are involved in agricultural work. The published unemployment rate does not reflect the actual situation, as Mark Zandi of Moody’s Investors has said we can add four percent to the published unemployment rate, if one counts the real number of those who want a job and those working part-time but want and cannot find a full-time job. It is believed that eighty percent of illegal immigrants had a job in their native country before coming illegally to America.
We need less immigration and insist on a higher educational level and skill level for would-be legal immigrants. This would lower the stress of immigration on our schools, health care system, level of real unemployment, and crime. Enforcing our immigration laws is paramount, but simply increasing legal immigration as we lower illegal immigration will change nothing. Less immigration is also the best way to improve assimilation and provide a better experience for immigrants.
We accept approximately one million legal immigrants each year from a number of countries, providing for diversity, with Mexico being allowed twice the number of any other country. Because our immigration system is so diverse and weighted [legal immigrants] toward Hispanics, there is no excuse for our Country to tolerate law breakers. Illegal immigration is really breaking in the line of those waiting to come to America legally. It is patently unfair when privileges are bestowed upon illegal immigrants who jump in front of would-be legal immigrants, and thereby ignore the rule of law.
Coming to America is not a right, it is a privilege. We have an overly generous legal immigration system. In short, we need not offer apologies to anyone for asking them to obey our immigration laws. Even the United Nations concurs that countries have a right to control their borders and protect their national security. Immigration to American should remain an opportunity. But immigration policies need to be changed to serve our national interest, not the interest of immigrants or special interests.
