Ted Cruz: Democrats' Open Borders Policy Is ‘Driving Down Wages’
'It is a radical bill that would grant amnesty to millions of people here illegally'
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Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) said, "the open borders policy of Democrats is driving down the wages of millions of Americans" during a hearing for a Democrat amnesty bill.
The bill, titled the Citizenship for Essential Workers Act, will give amnesty and citizenship to 5 million illegal migrants who replaced Americans in jobs described by the government as “essential.”
But around 80 percent of all jobs are categorized as “essential.”
The amnesty bill is pushed by Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA).
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Cruz noted the bill’s economic harm:
The bill that we’re discussing in this hearing today is, I believe, a very dangerous bill. It is a radical bill that would grant amnesty to millions of people here illegally, with a broad swath that is wrong, immoral, and profoundly unfair.
It is unfair to millions of Americans — [to] low-income Americans, Americans who may be out of work, Americans who may be in difficult jobs.
The open borders policy of Democrats is driving down wages of millions of Americans [including] the African American community. This bill is terrible for the African American community. It lowers wages in the African American community. The Hispanic community: This bill is terrible for the Hispanic community. For legal immigrants: … this bill drives down wages for millions of legal immigrants.
Decent sympathy by women for migrant children & families is buoying Joe Biden's destructive pro-migration policies.
— Neil Munro (@NeilMunroDC) April 28, 2021
But women also strongly dislike the economic damage from his migration.
Yet GOP staffers won't focus on the $$ angle b/c of GOP donors. https://t.co/6o0IrMCQml
Cruz said migrants were also being harmed by promises of amnesty to people who take dangerous journeys.
This bill is also profoundly unfair to illegal immigrants. That may seem counterintuitive, but the crisis that is playing out on our southern border is the direct result of bills like this and the radical policies of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
We’re told by advocates of bills like this that amnesty is humane. It is not humane when you have this year over 2 million people projected to come here illegally, being horribly mistreated by cartel members, being abused. That is the opposite of compassion. It is the opposite of humanity.
You want a humane policy ? Enforce the law. Last year we had the lowest rate of illegal immigration in 45 years because the Remain in Mexico policy works. Today we have the highest rate in 20 years. Enforce the law, and welcome legal immigrants, That’s the way to go.
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Biden’s policies also pull vulnerable people out of small foreign countries so they can serve as workers, renters, and consumers.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) sharply criticized the bill but did not address the economic impact.
He said:
"I am concerned with the Citizenship for Essential Workers Act [because] it puts basically the cart ahead of the horse."
"It aims to naturalize a large percentage of the undocumented population with only a tenuous nexus to the pandemic."
"The legal status of those who receive lawful permanent residents under this legislation is not in jeopardy because of the pandemic. The vast majority are simply unlawfully present in the United States.
"In addition, the proposal does not enhance border security or interior enforcement — things like E Verify, [and] making sure that we figure out how to keep the drugs and the human traffickers out of our country, along with people who are economic migrants."
"In fact, unfortunately, I think the proposal would actually weaken enforcement by eliminating disincentives to overstay visas, [and] by watering down the grounds on which the United States can exclude criminal aliens."
"Rather than permanently bringing people out of the shadows, this bill would I fear would only allow the number of undocumented migrants to grow."
"It’s also fundamentally unfair to all of the migrants who have been caught in the long visa backlogs, including the people who fundamentally have been trying to do it the right way.
"It’s unfair to let others jump ahead of them in line."
