Posted on 12/30/2016 10:17:57 AM PST by SharpRightTurn
In a New York Times op-ed entitled “Fix Immigration. It’s What Voters Want” Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., argues President-elect Trump “has a clear mandate not only to stop illegal immigration, but also to finally cut the generation-long influx of low-skilled immigrants that undermines American workers.” He says the nation needs an immigration policy that focuses less on powerful special interests and more on everyone else.
Below are excerpts from his op-ed [http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/28/opinion/tom-cotton-fix-immigration-its-what-voters-want.html?_r=1].
"[P]owerful industries [that] benefit from [high] immigration…contend that stricter immigration enforcement will further shrink the pool of workers and raise their wages. They argue that closing our borders to inexpensive foreign labor will force employers to add benefits and improve workplace conditions to attract and keep workers already here. I have an answer to these charges: Exactly."
"Higher wages, better benefits and more security for American workers are features, not bugs, of sound immigration reform. For too long, our immigration policy has skewed toward the interests of the wealthy and powerful: Employers get cheaper labor, and professionals get cheaper personal services like housekeeping…[But in] a tight labor market, bosses cannot set low wages and still attract workers."
"Americans see cheap immigrant labor as a way to enrich the wealthy while creating a near permanent underclass for whom the American dream is always just out of reach. Yet, as if Mr. Trump’s campaign never happened, companies in labor-intensive industries want to sustain or even increase current immigration flows…The short-term interest of businesses isn’t the same as the long-term national interest."
"Our country, like any country, needs borders and must decide who and how many can cross those borders. We must make this decision with the well-being of all our citizens in mind. Today, that means a large reduction in legal immigration and a reorientation toward ultra-high-skill immigrants. This policy would resemble the immigration systems of Canada and Australia, countries with similar advanced economies. While our system gives priority to reuniting extended families and low-skilled labor, their systems prize nuclear-family reunification and attributes like language skills, education and work experience. "
"We have an immigration policy today that few Americans support or voted for…But in this election, Americans finally demanded an end to this unthinking immigration system. President-elect Trump and Congress should take that mandate and act on it promptly in the new year.”
Writing about Sen. Cotton’s op-ed, the Center for Immigration Studies’ Mark Krikorian said it “hits all the right themes, without rancor but also without the pussyfooting so common on this issue. He’s been critiquing mass immigration for some time now, and without the “legal good/illegal bad” fallacy put forth by so many Republicans, whose calls for tough border enforcement are accompanied by support for huge increases in immigration. “
Krikorian continues “[He is not] simply following the lead of some Republicans, like Sen. Rubio, who support the current high level of immigration, but want a reallocation away from cheap labor for fast-food restaurants toward cheap labor for tech firms. Instead Sen. Cotton prefaces his desire for ‘a reorientation toward ultra-high-skill immigrants’ with a call for “a large reduction in legal immigration…[He] is sending the important message that the problem is mass immigration as policy, not immigrants as people…It’s good news that Sen. Cotton will be a leading voice in that process.
Read Sen. Cotton’s full op-ed.
McCainiac, Grahamnesty, Fluke, et al. will not like this talk. From Sen. Cotton's mouth to God's ears, this is my New Year's wish.
We could do a brain drain on most of the world. Take the best of the best and have them benefit America. Instead we bring in people who largely end up a net drain on the social safety net. All of that is without even considering the large social costs of immigration from the poor from third world countries. Why not bring in people who will end up contributing far more than they take?
Link to Cotton’s op-ed in the Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/28/opinion/tom-cotton-fix-immigration-its-what-voters-want.html?_r=0
God bless Tom Cotton! Meanwhile, RINO POS Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) beats the drum for legal immigration because his state’s seafood industry “needs” it: https://www.tillis.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=60B5D7C7-A0E3-43BF-B5B0-9629B6BF3BB2
Has Cotton come around to be a reliable Deplorable? For awhile during the early stages of the campaign, he had me worried.
“Take the best of the best and have them benefit America. “
That should be our only criterion. No daisy chain family reunion, no “birth right” misreading of the 14th Amendment, no fake “refugee” immigration, no endless swamping of the country with Somalis and other third-worlders who don’t know what a light bulb is.
Top scientists and inventors, yes. Thirty million tomato pickers, no.
Don’t call us; we’ll call you.
It is amazing how we throw our fellow citizens under the globalist bus so easily.
“You’ll never hear Obama or Hillary say that. If anything, they’d say “make American workers benefit ‘undocumented’ immigrants”.”
Obummer/Clinton believe the mere physical presence of immigrants, legal or illegal, in our country “enriches us”, even if they get on the welfare roll on day one.
I could be argued that a once industrialized first world country like the USA that is purposly de industrializing should stop all immigration.
“God bless Tom Cotton! Meanwhile, RINO POS Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) beats the drum for legal immigration because his state’s seafood industry “needs” it”
Yes, we need more Cottons and fewer Tillises.
Engineering and science salaries are flat and have been so for decades. We have enough people NOW of all IQ’s, skills and abilities to meet the countries labor needs.
“Has Cotton come around to be a reliable Deplorable? For awhile during the early stages of the campaign, he had me worried.”
I am not sure about all of his positions. I know he is too interventionist for me in foreign affairs, but he has been excellent on immigration issues. He is among such a small number in that regard, particularly in the Senate, you really have to give him credit for taking a stand to dramatically reduce legal immigration.
“Engineering and science salaries are flat and have been so for decades. We have enough people NOW of all IQ’s, skills and abilities to meet the countries labor needs.”
Don’t misundestand; I am fully aware of the H1B and other visa facades that Disney, Microsoft, Fakebook, Google, et al. use to displace American workers.
I am talking about a relatively few world class scientists or inventors that would be a boon to the country. (Someone like a Wernher von Braun.)
An idea I've read to address those special cases is to set a minimum H-1B salary of, say, $150K. The von Brauns will be worth it; the Third World code drones will not and so won't be hired.
The KEY to any real immigration reform is to bring down LEGAL immigration from the current one million + per year to under two hundred & fifty thousand per year, at most. Over 80% of all LEGAL immigrants vote democratic.....it’s killing conservatism.
McCain, Graham and Flake are already at work with their fellow Democrats trying to protect illegal aliens from our laws.
Rubio will be joining them shortly.
Tillis is a Cheap Labor Express Republican like most of the GOP Senators.
Cotton and Sessions and a very few others are on the side of the citizens.
The rest side with illegal aliens and their employers.
Cotton is letting us know he knows what we know......Trump has a MANDATE.
“An idea I’ve read to address those special cases is to set a minimum H-1B salary of, say, $150K. The von Brauns will be worth it; the Third World code drones will not and so won’t be hired.”
Good point. I think Japan has the minimum salary requirement, that basically removes any incentive to displace citizens by bringing in cheap labor ala Disney.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.