The U.S. House recently passed an alleged “Farm Bill” on a 260-165 vote that creates a loophole for illegal immigrants to secure amnesty and could have devastating effects on working Americans.
After months of backroom negotiations, the so-called Farm Workforce Modernization Act was put to a floor vote with 34 Republicans backing the controversial measure. Although Democrats were reportedly hoping to gain as many as 100 votes from across the aisle, Alabama Republican Rep. Mo Brooks exposed the amnesty trick that would undercut the gains blue-collar Americans have made under the Trump Administration’s America First policies.
The Farm legislation changes the way H-2A agricultural visas are doled out and would allow undocumented farm hands to secure a five-and-a-half-year visa as “Certified Agricultural Workers.” All they need is to demonstrate they have worked for six months in the U.S. during the last 24 months, regardless of legal status. That basically gives people who broke the law entering the country and stole an American citizen’s job 66 months of amnesty.
“This amnesty bill is an attack on the American people and in particular, it is an attack on blue-collar workers — people who work with their hands, people who already have a tough time making ends meet,” Rep. Brooks reportedly said. “And the reason it is an attack on those individuals is because it does two things ultimately: One, it increases competition by illegal alien labor that, in turn, takes jobs from hard-working American citizens. And two, it creates a huge surge in the labor supply. It’s the wages of the least among us that are going to be suppressed because of this effort by the agricultural industry and the Democrats.”
Rep. Brooks is precisely correct when he points to illegals being a primary cause of stagnant blue-collar wages. West Coast Democrats have consistently pushed for open borders that attract cheap labor from Mexico and Central America to work the fields so that large agricultural corporations can sidestep paying Americans fair wages.
But the Alabama Republican’s outrage only addresses part of the problem with the insidious measure. The extended H-2A visas would allow spouses and children to stay in the U.S. as well. It appears to be a clever maneuver to increase the so-called “chain migration” and “anchor baby” loopholes the Trump Administration continues to fight.
According to studies conducted by the Center for Immigration Studies, international students on visas have upwards of 39,000 anchor babies each year, and tourists add another 33,000 U.S.-born children. All told, as many as 300,000 non-citizens give birth to children on American soil in an effort to gain a foothold. These infants are entitled to American citizenship as a birthright and used by parents to remain in the country. There are an estimated 4.5 million anchor babies in the U.S., which exceeds the number of children born to citizens each year.
California, which claims it is a sanctuary state for criminal aliens, is home to approximately 1.2 million illegals under the age of 18 years old. Needless to say, allowing entire non-citizen families to remain in the country for 66 consecutive months will add to the anchor baby and chain migration problems that cost taxpayers upwards of $2.4 in hospital costs alone. Each illegal immigrant that pilfers off a job that is owed to an American by right undercuts wages across the board.
Research conducted by leading economists demonstrates that upwards of $500 billion in wealth is poorly redistributed as a result of illegal immigration. For every percentage point of illegals stealing American jobs, wages are reduced by 0.5 percent. Given that a reported 17.5 percent of the workforce is comprised of illegal immigrants, American-born workers are being slapped with an 8.75-percent pay cut. Delivering mass amnesty and opening the door to a surge in anchor babies and chain migration would crush blue-collar wages.
“I’m very much concerned about what’s going to happen in the U.S. Senate,” Rep. Brooks reportedly said. “I’m also very much concerned that the Trump administration has not issued a veto warning should this legislation pass the Senate.”
