Rob discusses the emotionally charged issue of immigration reform in light of the start of President Obama’s “Deferred Action” program.
http://www.myfoxdc.com/video?clipId=7615161
Category: Immigration
BOOK REVIEW: ‘Press 2 for English’
July 28, 2012
This is a serious book by a thoughtful observer of one of the crisis issues facing America. The points he raises deserve a close reading and careful consideration. S. Rob Sobhani argues that U.S. immigration policy has become such a contradictory mishmash of reaction responses that it amounts to no policy.
He also argues that those other “new arrivals” in American society, our black fellow citizens, are the most heavily penalized by the surge since 2000 of an estimated 13 million immigrants — 11 million of them illegal. He cites data that at least 40 percent of the high incidence of unemployment among blacks, most particularly among black teenagers, can be traced to immigrants who take jobs at lower wages. Continue reading “BOOK REVIEW: ‘Press 2 for English’” »
Crowding out the middle class
July 17, 2012When people talk about the problem with immigration, they usually are referring to illegals. It is easy to scapegoat the rule-breakers who escape corrupt countries such as El Salvador and Mexico for a better life in America. But the truth is, the 11 million or 12 million illegals in this country represent just a fraction of the problem. Along with globalization, legal — not illegal — immigration threatens to demolish the American middle class. Continue reading “Crowding out the middle class” »
The Trauma of Obama: Limiting Job Opportunities At Home
June 24, 2012President Obama’s recent executive order to shorten the time that illegal immigrants would have to spend away from their U.S. citizen spouses, children or parents while seeking legal status is unfair to both Americans and the immigrants who escape the harsh conditions of life in countries like El Salvador, Mexico, Russia or Guatemala. Continue reading “The Trauma of Obama: Limiting Job Opportunities At Home” »
Obama’s Immigration Policy: Borrowing from Peter to pay Paul
January 24, 2012President Obama’s recent executive order to shorten the time that illegal immigrants would have to spend away from their U.S. citizen spouses, children or parents while seeking legal status is unfair to both Americans and the immigrants who escape the harsh conditions of life in countries like El Salvador, Mexico, Russia or Guatemala. Here is an issue the U.S. Congress should rise to the occasion and be heard. Continue reading “Obama’s Immigration Policy: Borrowing from Peter to pay Paul” »
California Dream Act
October 20, 2011As Governor Jerry Brown has just signed the California Dream Act into law to allow illegal immigrants to receive state-financed aid for college, the United States should wake up to two mutually reinforcing realities about our broken immigration system. First, America’s failed immigration system is the flip side of a failed foreign policy.
For example, Mexican officials are allowed to export their revolution to the United States by not providing a decent standard of living for its citizens who then have to come to the U.S. in search of a better future. In short, America has not insisted on good governance in Mexico.
In the meantime, our country has grown from 200 million to more than 310 million in fewer than four decades. This means that states like California need to produce more jobs; protect more of the vulnerable; and build more schools, roads, and bridges. Continue reading “California Dream Act” »
The Unemployment Blues and Immigration
September 6, 2011As the national conversation shifts from tackling America’s mounting debt to job creation, it is important to take stock of the numbers. On top of the 14 million unemployed Americans, 9 million part-time workers are searching for a full-time job. In addition, 7 million have simply given up looking and therefore not included in the statistics. This adds up to 30 million. Unfortunately if America does not address its broken immigration system these historic high unemployment figures will linger for many more years irrespective of who is sitting in the White House. Continue reading “The Unemployment Blues and Immigration” »
Marshall Plan for the Americas
August 23, 2011Global prosperity requires a new narrative on immigration and cross border migration. If we allow the poor to escape to the rich and then redistribute our wealth to take care of the needy new arrivals, we will only impoverish ourselves in the process. Global prosperity must increase if we are to address
this issue seriously. This is especially true for the economies of Mexico, Central and South America. We must immediately launch a Marshall Plan, a micro-finance plan, and a private-public partnership plan so that jobs are created south of the U.S. border and immigrants (illegal and legal) who are living in the U.S. have the option to return to their homelands and re-build new lives for themselves. Perhaps then our nation will not be overwhelmed by those seeking that which exists in such abundance here in America.
Immigration and America’s Structural Dislocation
August 8, 2011The single greatest impact on the U.S. labor force has been the slow but gradual shift of the labor supply curve outwards as a result of unmanageable immigration. The arrival of so many illegal and legal aliens into the U.S. from the 1980s onwards has caused a downward movement in wages and salaries accompanied by higher unemployment as blacks, low-income whites and the elderly are displaced. Continue reading “Immigration and America’s Structural Dislocation” »
Keeping the American Dream
June 20, 2011Two mutually reinforcing truths about America get lost in the verbal insults and legal battles of the DREAM Act.
First, America’s failed immigration system is the flip side of a failed foreign policy. For example, Mexican officials are allowed to export their revolution to the United States by failing to provide a decent standard of living for their citizens, who then have to come to the U.S. in search of a better future. In short, America has not insisted on good governance in Mexico.
In the meantime, our country has grown from 250 million to 310 million in fewer than two decades. This means that our already broken economic system needs to produce more jobs, protect more of the vulnerable; and build more schools, roads and bridges.
The problem is that the welfare system we have created along with a broken immigration system is unaffordable under the demographic and economic circumstances of the 21st century. Some would argue that we would not have become a global superpower without opening our doors to immigrants; that smart, self-motivated immigrants spur the innovations and create the jobs our economy needs to thrive. This may be true, but it does not tell the whole story. Continue reading “Keeping the American Dream” »
