Congressional Study Reaffirms: Mass Immigration Pushes Down Wages of Americans

Please help us help the American people catch a break!

Dear John,

We've been warning for ages that mass immigration is a lose-lose-lose for American workers.

It causes declining wages, exploding deficits and a worsening entitlement crisis. We all have to be heartened by the Congressional Budget Office weighing in earlier this month and confirming again that new immigrants with no special skills push DOWN wages for American workers and legal immigrants forced to compete with them.

But that is a conclusion that most of the Washington elites continue to deny. And that is why we come to work at NumbersUSA every day: Somebody has to stand up for Americans!

Our opponents' arguments are in tatters, yet we're quite low on Action funds.
Please help us continue the fight!

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In a nutshell, mass immigration adds a FEW MORE dollars to spread around in a bigger population. But American workers don't get a share, since their wages get depressed. The extra dollars that immigration creates in the economy go to corrupt businesses who exploit illegal labor, to the giant corporations who get massive numbers of cheap imported workers, and of course, to the new immigrants themselves. Their lobbyists have been spinning economic data to convince Washington insiders, eager for their cash, that an endless flood of cheap labor is a good thing, since it helps enrich THEM (at the cost of the Treasury, workers, and future generations).

It's been up to the members, allies and staff of NumbersUSA to counter those arguments. We've been armed with the experiences of our members and academic and government studies. Thank you so much for your help through the years; you can't imagine how effective and important your letters and phone calls have been. But Washington loves its government studies.

That's why it's so important that this month the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office released a study called "The Foreign-Born Population and Its Effects on the U.S. Economy and the Federal Budget." Here's the punch line:

"To the extent that newly arrived workers have abilities similar to those of workers already in the country, immigration would have a NEGATIVE effect on wages."

Although the CBO report focuses on lower-skill immigrants and lower-skill American workers, the principle applies to every job and every American worker at every skill level. If there are Americans who can do the jobs, adding immigrant workers will create downward pressure on wages.

The study reveals the education levels of the foreign-born age 25 and up. There are about 10 million immigrants 25+ who have not completed high school. Let this sink in: Almost half of the people in America without a high-school education are foreign-born. Putting it in research jargon, the foreign born are way overrepresented among all high school dropouts/no high school at all.

What's the result? Here's what the CBO study said about this statistic:

"Among people with less education, a large percentage are foreign born. Consequently, immigration has exerted downward pressure on the wages of relatively low-skilled workers who are already in the country, regardless of their birthplace."

Do you want to know why household income levels in American have risen so slowly despite economic growth since the 1980s? THIS IS ONE THE MAIN REASONS WHY!

It's really no surprise. During our last big fight over "comprehensive immigration reform", the CBO acknowledged that the legislation's immigration increases would drive wages down. This Congressional Budget Office study reaffirms why we see wage stagnation: TOO MANY immigrants competing with Americans with similar education and skills.

To fight this threat to all working Americans:

> NumbersUSA champions an END to CHAIN MIGRATION, which brings in hundreds of thousands of low skilled workers every single year.

> We are fighting to END THE ABSURD IMMIGRATION VISA LOTTERY, which brings in 50,000 people each year without any evidence that America needs them.

> We have fought to MAKE E-VERIFY MANDATORY FOR EVERY U.S. EMPLOYER for our entire 23 years of existence. America's enormous population of ILLEGAL ALIENS take jobs that citizens and legal residents would otherwise get. ILLEGAL ALIENS push wages DOWN for all Americans.

When American workers can't afford a decent living on their wages, you know who pays: you do! You pay for their health care, their housing, their food, their children's education, their retirement, their unemployment insurance. Your tax dollars are subsidizing businesses to hire workers on the cheap, even while they complain they need more low-pay workers! And the "good guys" who offer fair wages are put at a competitive disadvantage.

If you believe fair wages are good for America,
please give us your financial support!

DONATE TODAY
You can now pay by Paypal or credit card directly on our web page. [link removed]

ONLY Congress can make these changes. ONLY NumbersUSA has the grassroots army to MAKE CONGRESS ACT!

We haven't gotten it done yet? That's right. NumbersUSA's record of defeating every major Amnesty proposal of this century is perfect -- 100%. But to make Congress PASS a bill, we need MORE resources in our NumbersUSA ACTION fund.

Instead, this fund is struggling, because foundations cannot give to it. Also, it's struggling because too many donors are directing their giving to political campaigns. But if we're to get the super-majority needed to pass the legislation we need to defend the American worker, we need to do more than just punish one party or the other; we need to make sure that those who get elected represent their voters!

This season, billions of dollars will be spent on elections, and billions more on influencing politicians. Each dollar to NumbersUSA can have as much impact as one of our opponents maxing out their contribution to a candidate! So please give today.

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Keep the faith and don't ever give up!

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Jim Robb
VP Operations

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