No, immigrants are not taking your job

Editor’s Note: The following article is part of our “Debunking the Lies” campaign. We aim to publish articles refuting mainstream lies told about immigrants, migrants, and refugees.

Lie #14: Immigrants steal American jobs.

The Truth: Government policies and programs cause unemployment for U.S. citizens.

Immigration is always a convenient topic around election time for Democrats and Republicans and has resurfaced for the 2024 presidential campaign. During the 2016 campaign, Trump highlighted immigration to appeal to his MAGA base and called for an “America First” foreign policy. The use of the term is troubling. It originated as a post World War I ideology promoted by the eugenics movement, with a focus of anti-sematism and xenophobia that appealed to racist organizations like the Klu Klux Klan. The Anti-Defamation League urged him not to use it in 2016 because of the anti-semitic and pro-Nazi origin. Nevertheless, he insisted, and it became the overriding theme for his campaign and presidency.

Trump told his constituents that immigrants from “shithole countries” (referring to people of color from the Global South) were not good people. He claimed Mexico was not sending their best. They were sending people with problems; they were taking our jobs and driving wages down; they were bringing crime; they were rapists, and the country was being overrun by “illegals”. Such myths appealed to his followers. Finishing the border wall that Clinton started between the US and Mexico became a major priority for recruitment of his base.

Biden vowed to never build another foot of the border wall between Mexico and the U.S. However, he made a complete flip in 2023, and border wall construction resumed in an attempt to appeal to Trump’s MAGA base and undecided voters. The White House Press Secretary said that Biden believes the border wall is “not effective”. Under pressure, he signed an executive order to suspend processing most asylum claims in order to show he was tough on immigration. Trump attempted to restrict asylum seekers, but the courts blocked his action. Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that everyone has the right to seek asylum and enjoy freedom from persecution. Biden’s conditions violate the 1948 UN Declaration, according to Amnesty International.

THE TRUTH WHY IMMIGRANTS COME

The claim that immigrants are taking our jobs is not new and is often repeated without question. We hear they want to experience our way of life, the so-called “American Dream”. Is this why they flock to the border? If that is not what they seek, why do they continue to come?

Physical and economic destruction of a country via sanctions, economic interventions, election fraud, and proxy wars are never mentioned in the corporate media as a major factor in the surge of migrants at the border. U.S. foreign policy is destroying economies and exporting the profits worldwide in building and sustaining the largest empire in history. This policy allows the U.S. to take over many aspects of a foreign nation’s economy. After buying out small businesses and farmer’s land through austerity requirements, large corporations provide low paying jobs and export the profits. Many workers have no alternative but to leave their country in search of work. Illegal sanctions and other interventions cause massive numbers of people to flee their country desperately and eventually arrive at the U.S. border.

The UN Human Rights Council has condemned the impact of illegal sanctions, and the U.S. ignores the regulations. Recently, large increases of migrants and asylum seekers have been coming from Venezuela, Honduras, Haiti, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua. These are countries where the U.S. drastically increased sanctions to disrupt the economy and create shortages and “regime change” Election fraud and proxy wars add to the chaos. The US government and corporate media deliberately convince the public that the problems in these countries are caused by the foreign governments. The U.S. has more than 1,000 sanctions against Venezuela because the country wants to be independent.

In an interview with Pacifica Radio’s Amy Goodman, Colombian President, Gustavo Petro, noted that as many as 70% of the people currently seeking asylum in the US are from Venezuela, “a country that has been devastated by U.S. sanctions” and that the blockade is what is driving citizens to flee. By implementing the sanctions, citizens from Venezuela are now “knocking at their door” at the U.S. border, the same people they drove into poverty.

Former Mexican President, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, also blamed sanctions for creating the massive increase of migrants at the U.S./Mexico border. The government and corporate media never mention sanctions, proxy wars, election fraud, and several other methods that destroy the economy of a country as a reason for the influx at the border. Cuba is currently in trouble due to US sanctions for more than 60 years and put out a plea asking for help. Many countries have come to their aid, but not the U.S. They are not even letting Cuban frozen assets that the US illegally confiscated to be used for food and medical needs.

Apart from being illegal, sanctions are devastating and seldom work. The Congressional Research Service report, that informs Congressional debate, admitted that sanctions in Venezuela have failed in causing “regime change” but “have exacerbated an economic crisis causing 7.7 million migrant Venezuelans to flee.”

Neither the corporate media nor Congress pay any attention to these reports, but the information is clear. Congress and the corporate media do not accept the reports the US government commissions unless they fit into the government propaganda narrative. The UN Charter only allows sanctions to be implemented by way of a Security Council Resolution, making all US sanctions worldwide illegal. Since the depression in 2008, the US and Global North have issued sanctions on 25 percent of the countries in the world.

ARE IMMIGRANTS REALLY A THREAT TO THE ECONOMY

Are immigrants at the border really such a threat to the economy? NO. In fact, the situation is just the opposite. Immigration stimulates the economy and does not remove jobs as so often claimed. A report from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) found that “immigration to the United States will boost its economy by $7 trillion over the next decade by expanding the labor force and increasing consumer demand” and “will add an extra $1 trillion in revenue to the government’s coffers, resulting in an annual budget deficit of 7% by 2034, lower than previously expected.” CBO released the report the same day Republicans blocked negotiations regarding immigration. Congress will not read their own reports if they do not contain the desired results. Immigrants stimulate the economy and boost the job market, the opposite of what politicians and election campaigns are saying.

Regarding the CBO report, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell admitted that the U.S. economy has greatly benefited from immigration but “emphasized that he wasn’t telling Congress what to do about the border.” Trump’s base totally buys into thinking that immigration is at the heart of the nation’s economic problems rather than a benefit. Biden’s executive orders slow immigration and asylum at the border and are subject to legal action. He can do this using Section 212(f) of the 1952 Immigration Nationality Act, which allows the president to “deny immigration for anyone deemed ‘detrimental’ to the interests of the United States.” Detrimental is difficult to understand in that government research indicates immigration boosts the economy.

Biden’s action is right out of Trump’s playbook and sounds like his campaign speech that Mexico is sending rapists, murderers, and drug dealers needs to be stopped. Biden is using the same law that Trump used to ban immigrants from Muslim Nations, which was initially blocked and then restructured to avoid going to court. Discussing the real reasons for the need to emigrate from a country that the U.S. has destroyed is hardly ever emphasized. 

Immigration helps the economy, according to the government, but they never admit it. Are U.S. citizens really losing jobs? The answer is yes. Government policies and programs cause unemployment for U.S. citizens.

Restrictions on immigration will not slow down the number of migrants at the border because there is still a demand for cheap labor. Those who have been pushed off their land by corporate greed and forced out of business will continue to come. Low wages are better than no wages. The proposals by both parties will not address the issues needed for change. The origin of the problem is U.S. exploitation for control of resources in Central and South America and the Gulf of Mexico.

IMMIGRANTS ARE NOT TAKING JOBS

Immigrants are not taking jobs from citizens. First, we have to remember that corporations are encouraged to take businesses overseas to take advantage of non-union labor, tax breaks, low wages, and exploitation of foreign workers. U.S. workers and immigrants did not ship those jobs overseas to create job shortages.

Part of the answer regarding job loss comes from the U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division through the H-1B Program. The H-1B visa program allows large corporations to “hire nonimmigrants as workers in specialty occupations or as fashion models of distinguished merit and ability.” The program specifies that the corporation must first look for U.S. employees and demonstrate there is a shortage. Monitoring of the regulation is minimal. Specialty occupations generally require a college degree, and fashion models have no requirement.

The requirements say that salary must be equal to that of a U.S. citizen. Jeremy Neufeld, a senior immigration fellow at the Institute for Progress, said “companies have an incentive to file as many petitions for H-1B visas as possible for minimally qualified workers rather than prioritize the most highly qualified candidates” They would have to compensate them for experience. This circumvents the equal pay requirement. These visas are common for high tech companies like Apple, IBM, Meta (Facebook parent company), Microsoft, Amazon, Oracle, and Uber. The companies have to show that there are not US citizens available for the job, and critics say they are circumventing the law.

The jobs can be outsourced through an agency where the work will be performed in a foreign country. Facebook’s parent company approved “more than 1,500 H-1B new workers in 2022”. The DOJ accused Facebook of reserving positions for foreigners, not citizens, and agreed to settle for $14 million. Companies are now laying off hundreds of U.S. high-tech workers while H-B1 visas are constantly on the rise.

High tech degrees in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) have increased 40% since 2000, yet companies still claim they cannot find qualified individuals from the U.S. If anyone is taking jobs from citizens, it is the high tech industry and not immigrants.

The H-2A program

The H-2A program is reserved for agriculture and does not lead to Permanent Residence as does the H-1B visa.The program also requires equal pay but that is circumvented easily with little or no oversight. Investigations have shown that inspectors are bribed.

One example demonstrates the kinds of problems that can occur. In Georgia, an investigation called Operation Blooming Onion was decided this year. Eight defenders of Georgia’s largest human trafficking case pleaded guilty, and more may follow. The investigation found:

Defendants required guest farm workers (H-2A visas) to pay legal fees to obtain jobs, withheld their IDs so they couldn’t leave, made them work for little or no pay, housed them in unsanitary conditions and threatened them with deportation and violence. Two workers died in the heat, according to the indictment. Court records say five workers were kidnapped and one of them was raped.

Even the ultra-conservative Council on Foreign Relations says that H-1B programs often violate the law “because they can get away with paying foreign workers less and offering fewer labor protections” while taking away jobs from citizens.

Returning to the question: Are immigrants taking jobs?

The answer is no.

Government agreements and programs cut deep into restricting job access for citizens. Instead of listening to political football by both parties, we need to examine what is really happening regarding immigration and how immigrants are being abused for political gain. For an in-depth view that immigrants are not taking our jobs and other myths, read Aviva Chomski’s They Take Our Jobs! and 20 other myths about immigration.

El Tribuno del Pueblo brings you articles written by individuals or organizations, along with our own reporting. Bylined articles reflect the views of the authors. Unsigned articles reflect the views of the editorial board. Please credit the source when sharing: tribunodelpueblo.org. We’re all volunteers, no paid staff. Please donate at http://tribunodelpueblo.org to keep bringing you the voices of the movement because no human being is illegal.