I think that’s only true if legal immigration is held at the numbers we have now. If there was a pause for a few years on any immigration at all “after the borders were sealed” and then maybe 5-10k per year were let in only on their merits, I think it would work for the country instead of against.
Agree, we need a merit based system that brings in the skills we need to be competitive in the global economy. We don't need the current 1.2 million permanent legal immigrants a year along with the 650,000 who come in annually as guest workers on temporary work visas. 20 million Americans are unemployed or underemployed. We need to create 125,000 jobs a month just to keep up with population growth. And coincidentally, we are bringing in 125,000 immigrants a month, admittedly only about two thirds are workers.
Four million Americans graduate from high school every year.