This Issue: New job growth falls short of expectations -- but media continue to ignore immigration's impact on labor market

Fri, Oct. 2^th

The economy added 661,000 new jobs during the month of September, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The number was below the 800,000 that economists had expected, and less than half the jobs gains recorded in August (1.4 million).

Officially, 12.5 million Americans are unemployed and actively seeking work. An additional 8 million people are either underemployed or recently gave up on their job search.

With a total of around 30 million receiving some kind of unemployment benefits, polls show that jobs and the economy are the top issues for voters this fall. But the impact that immigration has on those issues continues to be ignored by the national media.

Tuesday's debate between Pres. Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden touched on the jobs recession, but the discussion quickly shifted to economic shutdowns due to Covid-19 and the records of both candidates prior to the pandemic. Immigration was not mentioned.

Debate moderator Chris Wallace didn't specifically list immigration as one of the topics in advance of the debate, but again, not mentioning immigration's impact on the labor market during the discussion on jobs underscored the media's reluctance to make that connection.

More than 1 million new green cards with lifetime work permits are issued each year, plus hundreds of thousands of additional guest worker visas. Arguably, immigration has the single, greatest controllable impact on the size of the labor force in the United States.

Recognizing this, the Trump administration suspended most employment-based and chain-migration green cards and several guest worker programs during the height of the jobs recession. However, just yesterday, a federal judge in California blocked that order for workers of companies represented by the plaintiffs, which includes the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, the National Retail Association, and TechNet.

Trump and Biden have vastly different views on the role of immigration enforcement. I would like to assume those views will be highlighted in one of the two remaining debates, and that it will likely come up as a topic during the Vice Presidential debate between V.P. Mike Pence and Sen. Kamala Harris next week.

Voters deserve to know where the candidates stand on overall immigration numbers. Should the U.S. continue to import foreign workers during a jobs recession?

NumbersUSA is always asking this question, and we continue to work to move it front-and-center. This week, we ran a new ad on cable television news, highlighting the recommendations of the last bipartisan Congressional commission on immigration. You can view that ad by clicking here.

NumbersUSA will continue to ask the question -- should the U.S. continue to import more foreign workers during a jobs recession -- throughout the campaign season. We hope that members of the media with access to the candidates will start asking them this key question, too.

CONGRESS UPDATE

Last night, the House of Representatives passed the Heroes Act 2.0. NumbersUSA urged a NO vote ahead of the roll call.

It's unlikely to move in the Senate, but if passed, it would allow illegal aliens to receive economic stimulus payments, protect certain illegal aliens from removal, and expedite green cards and visas for foreign workers in some industries.

Also this week, the Senate passed and Pres. Trump signed a continuing resolution that extends funding for the federal government through Dec. 11. Our Hill Team always leads the fight to keep bad immigration provisions out of these funding bills. We're happy to report that this latest CR did not contain any.

Chris Chmielenski
NumbersUSA Deputy Director

The Hill: The Hill reported that our scoring memo for the Heroes Act was included in a memo to GOP lawmakers.

"The GOP memo noted that outside groups including Heritage Action, National Taxpayers Union, Americans for Prosperity, Americans for Tax Reform, NumbersUSA, the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), Taxpayers Protection Alliance and the Eagle Forum have come out strongly against the Democratic measure."

Breitbart: The Vanguard Group's outsourcing of 1,300 Pennsylvania white-collar jobs to Indian H-1B workers has given a huge opportunity to President Donald Trump in the key swing state, says a series of activists and consultants.

"Most voters vote their pocketbook, and if one candidate is going to protect their jobs and the other is going to give them away, that strategy seems pretty obvious to me," said Rosemary Jenks, policy director at NumbersUSA. "It would make sense for him to go there and talk about that."

Trump Visa Halt Partially Blocked by Federal Judge

Fri, Oct. 2^nd

A federal judge in California has blocked President Trump's extremely effective ban against many of the largest companies in the country importing tens of thousands of foreign workers under H-1B and other employment-based visas.

Maps of top immigration-reduction races for Congress

Fri, Oct. 2^nd

Since last January NumbersUSA's staff has been updating Candidate Comparison pages for all 435 congressional districts and the states with a Senate election this year.

Our national TV ad asks immigration question most media are ignoring

Tue, Sep. 29^th

Year after year, decade after decade, NumbersUSA continues to try to force the public and its officials to confront variations of the same question: "Is it fair to continue high immigration when so many Americans need jobs?"

Rep. Collins' Persistence Pays Off in Ga. Illegal Korean Worker Scheme

Fri, Sep. 25^th

ICE has announced that over a dozen illegal workers in Jackson County, Ga. have been arrested as part of a larger than initially expected illegal worker scheme

For best times of Black economic advancement, look for periods of tight labor markets & low immigration

ROY BECK

Tue, Sep. 29^th

Few politicians seem to realize that U.S. history -- especially from the 1940s and 1950s -- provides exhilarating evidence of how reducing immigration may be one of the most effective tools for advancing racial equality.