Trump Reverses Wage-Boosting Campaign Commitment, Demands More Legal Immigration: ‘We Need People’

Breitbart ^ | 2/6/2019 | John Binder

[Zhang Fei]

President Trump is reversing his campaign commitment to reduce overall legal immigration levels to the United States in order to raise the wages of America’s working and middle class, as he is now demanding more immigration.

During his State of the Union (SOTU) address this week, Trump went off-script while discussing national immigration policy, saying he wanted to admit “the largest numbers ever” of legal immigrants to the country.

“Legal immigrants enrich our nation and strengthen our society in countless ways,” Trump said. “I want people to come into our country, in the largest numbers ever, but they have to come in legally.”

Currently, the U.S. imports more than a million legal immigrants annually, with the vast majority deriving from chain migration, whereby newly naturalized citizens can bring an unlimited number of foreign relatives to the country. In 2017, the foreign-born population reached a record high of 44.5 million.

The U.S. is on track to import about 15 million new foreign-born voters in the next two decades should current legal immigration levels continue. Those 15 million new foreign-born voters include about eight million who will arrive in the country through chain migration. This booming legal immigrant population has not only rapidly shifted the demographics of the nation, but research indicates it will hand over all electoral dominance to Democrats in a matter of decades.

Mass legal immigration has come at the expense of America’s working and middle class, which has suffered from poor job growth, stagnant wages, and increased public costs to offset the importation of millions of low-skilled foreign nationals.

Trump’s off-script comment, though, seems to be his preferred immigration stance, as he is now telling reporters he is doubling down on his mass legal immigration statement, claiming there will be a labor shortage if we don’t admit more

[Trump.Deplorable]

President Trump is trolling the left and the GOPee labor express stooges. Sit back, keep your powder dry folks

Idiots like Ann Coulter won’t figure it out, but she doesn’t care as long as she can still sell her comic books

[ProtectOurFreedom]

He’s pre-empting their lunatic remarks like “Trump hates all immigrants” and “Trump is a racist.”

[Georgia Girl 2]

He’s just BSing to tweak the Dems.

[GaryCrow]

We’ve got plenty of american workers already, they’re just sitting at home watching daytime TV and drawing a welfare check. Cut out the checks and they’ll get off their butts & go to work.

[zeestephen]

Donald Trump on Twitter:

11 January 2019

“H1-B holders in the United States can rest assured that changes are soon coming which will bring both simplicity and certainty to your stay, including a potential path to citizenship. We want to encourage talented and highly skilled people to pursue career options in the U.S.”

[Crucial]

I don’t care if more legal immigrants come to the United States as long as native born Americans are the first priority. Also the racist practice of discriminating against European immigration needs to be stopped.

[zeestephen]

Re: “Also the racist practice of discriminating against European immigration needs to be stopped.”

Very few north and western Europeans stay in the USA after graduating from elite USA universities.

The main reason - the standard of living and the pay scale in their home country is the same as or better than in the USA.

Also, the Europeans do not want to compete against thousands and thousands of Third World foreign graduates who are all chasing Green Cards.

[Zhang Fei]

[Very few north and western Europeans stay in the USA after graduating from elite USA universities.

The main reason - the standard of living and the pay scale in their home country is the same as or better than in the USA.

Also, the Europeans do not want to compete against thousands and thousands of Third World foreign graduates who are all chasing Green Cards.]

---

Aside from pay issues, it’s a wrenching change. Looking at GDP per capita as a imperfect proxy for salary levels, Chinese pay is very roughly 1/7 of American levels today. That’s a huge increase from 1/64 in 1979 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_past_and_projected_GDP_(nominal)_per_capita#World_Bank_estimates_between_1970_and_1979 , when Deng Xiaoping began dismantling the kind of central economic planning that had cadres deciding what and how much to produce and issuing ration cards to the entire population. There was a time when Chinese grads of American universities would automatically attempt to find work stateside. That time is past. The tug of family ties and the familiar rhythms of life in their home country has drastically reduced the % of Chinese students who stay abroad after graduation. For anyone from a developed country, there’s very little incentive to move across an entire ocean even for double the pay. The exception *might* be if they find love stateside, or they work in a field with limited possibilities for advancement back home.

[StolarStorm]

So much for over 40 tech workers.

[xzins]

Rhetoric on Trump’s part to combat those who claim he hates immigrants.

[zeestephen]

Re: “The tug of family ties and the familiar rhythms of life in their home country has drastically reduced the % of Chinese students who stay abroad after graduation.”

I’m surprised to hear that.

In 2017, Asian Indian and Chinese students were #1 and #2 in the Optional Practical Training (OPT) program, which allows foreign graduates of USA universities to work in the USA for 36 months. There are roughly 300,000 foreign students in OPT.

China and India are also #1 and #2 in H-1B visas, but India holds a huge lead over China and the rest of the world in that program.

One reason that Indian and Chinese students do not stay in the USA is because we have put Green Card quotas on those countries.

It now takes an Indian software programmer 10 years to get a Green Card. China has a quota, too, but it is not that severe.

Also, Chinese STEM graduates are now universally suspected of being involved in corporate espionage, which I’m sure has cut back on USA job opportunities.

[rrrod]

First of all look at AOC...she is the image of so many young people

[ncalburt]

Trump has caved to the Cheap labor express.
I did not vote for this .

Peddling Bush lies wont get him reelected nor
wining and dining the Koch Bros traitors .

American are losing Jobs to foreign invaders.

Making China and India great again !

What happen to Trump protecting American White Collar workers .

He is a one termer if he sells out us .

[Zhang Fei]

The number of Chinese grads in the OPT program seem large. But then you need to consider the fact in 2017, there were over 360,000 Chinese students in the US. In other words, 85% are returning home. And that's assuming that the OPT students don't go back, which may not reflect what's actually happening.* From Wikipedia:

Year	Total use of OPT	Mainland China	India	South Korea	Taiwan	Canada	Japan
2006-07	48,387	7,171	10,703	4,497	2,993	1,653	2,350
2007-08	56,766	7,718	10,846	4,965	3,178	1,869	2,459
2008-09	66,601	8,212	14,886	5,134	3,444	1,778	2,237
2009-10	67,804	11,003	19,657	5,862	3,569	1,969	2,068
2010-11	76,031	13,268	24,665	6,026	3,737	2,204	1,820
2011-12	85,157	18,394	26,742	5,807	3,377	2,140	1,593
2012-13	94,919	23,968	27,831	6,268	3,417	2,333	1,630
2013-14	105,997	33,401	27,696	6,639	3,540	2,568	1,458
2014-15	120,287	43,114	29,388	6,635	3,622	2,683	1,285
2015-16	147,498	52,193	42,328	7,039	4,017	2,897	1,416

Re the H1B program, I expect the Chinese government isn't particularly interested in exporting the country's best minds, and would probably put the kibosh on anyone who tried to set up an H1B pipeline in China. India is a democratic country, so the top talent who aren't born into India's license Raj-generated plutocracy tread a well-worn path into large American MNC's, unhindered by a democratic government that lacks the power to throw obstacles in their way. Whereas the Chinese government has no compunction about doing whatever it needs to do. It's one thing to allow students who pay their own way to leave for studies abroad, and quite another to allow foreign MNC recruiters to siphon off large numbers of graduates of Chinese universities educated at the Party's expense.

* Anecdotes from the Economist.

[Jmouse007]

Dim witted, rabid COMMUNIST.

[DrPretorius]

There is still no required adherence to existing immigration law by government or business, no e-verify, no expulsions of illegal alien squatters, we have sanctuary cities operating with impunity all across this country, we have new tent new to house the illegal alien caravans rushing our border, and we’re seeing the military putting up concertina wire instead of a “Big Beautiful Wall”.

Coulter is right. Talk is cheap. We’re two years into Trumps term. He has failed to address the illegal alien invasion of our country. Her new article makes her case very well. No more excuses!

[DrPretorius]

Correction:
There is still no required adherence to existing immigration law by government or business, no e-verify, no expulsions of illegal alien squatters, we have sanctuary cities operating with impunity all across this country, we have new tent cities to house the illegal alien caravans rushing our border, and we’re seeing the military putting up concertina wire instead of a “Big Beautiful Wall”.

Coulter is right. Talk is cheap. We’re two years into Trumps term. He has failed to address the illegal alien invasion of our country. Her new article makes her case very well. No more excuses!

[HighSierra5]

The rest of their “best minds” are most likely spies planted as “ workers” and “students” in our country. What a mess.

[cymbeline]

I don’t see it that way. If our economy is expanding and needs more workers than can be internally supplied, then immigrant workers are helpful to the economy. It doesn’t mean wages of current workers will decrease. On the contrary, a shortage of workers would stifle our growth which would hurt us all, especially as we compete with other countries.

It’s like the money supply. Sometimes more money put into circulation doesn’t create inflation.