Immigration Reform Emperor Obama Style

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After forgetting about his promise of immigration reform to liberals, Mexicans, and Central Americans for the past 6 years Obama suddenly switched back to community organizer and said 5 million illegal aliens in America could stay under his new Executive Order, an action that promptly earned him the label of Emperor Obama.

Most Americans know we have a huge problem with illegal aliens as estimates range from 11 to 30 million hidden in our country.  One can't blame foreigners for wanting to come to America because of the poverty, crime, and hopelessness in many other countries.

Yet the action by our Emperor defies certain logical observations on how to deal with the problem.

First, they are criminals under our current system.  There is a legal process for immigrating to America and they violated it.  Millions of people from around the world are on waiting lists to come here legally.  What must they think?

Second, Obama says most of these people are migrant farm workers doing work no one else wants.  Such a claim cannot be documented.  Estimates of total farm workers in the USA from reputable sources say there are about one million farm workers in the nation, between ¼ and ½ estimated to be illegal immigrants, in other words, 250,000 to 500,000.  That is a far cry from 11 million.

Third, Obama says most do not pay taxes.  Pew Research Hispanic says 8.4 million of the 11 million undocumented workers are employed.  Obama's order covers 5 million of them.  However, the Obama Administration says most of the jobs they hold are ones our citizens often do not want.  So if he is going to grant them legal status to remain and get them to pay taxes the 5 million will have to move into the labor force and take 5 million jobs from American citizens currently holding the jobs.

Why is that, because the alternative is much worse.

Here is an extract from a recent Forbes Magazine report on the employed and underemployed in the USA.

     

Forbes Magazine

Louis Efron

Despite the significant decrease in the official U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) unemployment rate, the real unemployment rate is over double that at 12.6%. This number reflects the government’s “U-6” report, which accounts for the full unemployment picture including those “marginally attached to the labor force,” plus those “employed part time for economic reasons.”

“Marginally attached” describes individuals not currently in the labor force who wanted and were available for work. The official unemployment numbers exclude them, because they did not look for work in the 4 weeks preceding the unemployment survey. In July, this marginally attached group accounted for 2.2 million people. To put that in perspective, there are currently 16 states in the U.S. with populations smaller than 2.2 million.

741,000 discouraged workers – workers not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them – are included within the list of marginally attached people. Another 7.5 million were not considered unemployed because they were employed part-time for economic reasons. Those people are also called involuntary part-time workers – working part-time because their hours were cut back or because they were unable to secure a full-time job.

When you look at state populations – using the 7.5 million – the number represents more than the population of Washington, Massachusetts, or Arizona.

These numbers mean the U.S. has nearly 10 million workers only marginally engaged in their work situation. They don’t contribute their full potential to their households, the economy or society in general. While reporting a low, declining unemployment number may comfort people, we can’t ignore the millions of workers feeling the pain of the real unemployment number.

So, we have 10 million legal Americans unemployed or underemployed and 5 million illegal aliens about to join the "legal" work force.  If the undocumented workers with families, since the Obama strategy is to keep families together, do not get work, they will be eligible for all the benefits of the low income and poverty level Americans since they have children legally in the USA through birth or the Obama eligibility limit.  The additional cost to the government could total hundreds of millions of dollars a year for these new benefits for millions of families.

We have a problem, but we need a financially and socially viable solution.  So far we have neither.  All the president will accomplish with his grand plan is the further polarization of American between citizens and non-citizens, between races, and between political parties.  Is this the kind of leadership we deserve from our president?

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