Immigration: Tired of being portrayed by the media as racist xenophobes, many Republican politicians run scared from the issue of limiting illegal immigration. But a new report suggests they can win elections if they don't.
The immigration issue terrifies Republicans. All they hear in the media is that they're setting themselves up to "lose the Hispanic vote" unless they back progressive immigration "reforms" that keep the border open and legalize millions of illegals.
But a recent congressional staff memo dug up by the Power Line blog site argues convincingly that immigration could be a big winner for them. Attention Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, Chris Christie and others with squishy views on immigration reform: Here's your wake-up call.
The numbers in the GOP memo are convincing. Starting in 1970 from just 10 million immigrants in the U.S., or one in 21 residents, there are today 41 million, or nearly 1 in 7. And as many as half are illegal. By 2022, says the memo, the share of foreign born in the U.S. population will hit an all-time high — and will continue to grow after that.
Xenophobia? Hardly. It has a major economic impact. A study by Harvard economist George Borjas, for instance, found that the high immigration rates from 1980 to 2000 cut low-skilled workers' wages by 7.4%.
As Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions recently observed, "this ongoing wave (of immigration) coincides with a period of middle-class contraction."
Over the next decade, the Census Bureau expects 14 million new immigrants — a number equal to the population of New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. Some 10 million of them will get green cards, and with them, access to federal benefits, work permits and citizenship.
At a time when as many as 26 million Americans struggle to find work but can't, this is a huge problem.Read the rest of this IBD editorial HERE.
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