As the Senate’s discussion on immigration reform officially closed, lawmakers on Capitol Hill continued to forget what the bill will do for America’s soon-to-be largest voting bloc: Millennials.
The Congressional Budget Office, upon releasing an analysis of the bill’s impact, reported population statistics will bloat as more than 10 million illegal immigrants are granted a pathway to citizenship. And many Americans will see their wages decrease for the next 12 years.
But debates have failed to include the challenges Millennials will face as a result of amnesty.
“’Put simply, our job is to educate and train our youth. Not to rely on immigration to fill the skill gap,’” Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) said, quoting Great Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron. “Does that resonate with any of our people today? Have we thought through this as to how we should handle these matters?”
As a generation, those between the ages of 18 and 30 will make up almost half of the electorate by 2020, and they pay taxes and contribute to a social security system they likely will not reap the benefits of.
And with Senate’s immigration reform bill’s 68 to 32 passage, young Americans could be helping to provide benefits for millions of illegal immigrants who not only broke the law — sometimes more than once — but have already been benefitting from a variety of societal assistances provided by law-abiding taxpayers.
Yes, as Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said, immigrants will not be able to receive benefits for 13 years, but that still doesn’t help Millennials. Even a 35-year-old immigrant will have access to social security before the oldest Millennial does — and that’s after waiting the required 13 years to receive them.
After repeated requests for comment, Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C), Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) — the three remaining Republicans in the ‘Gang of Eight’ — would not tell Red Alert Politics why the immigration bill was beneficial to Millennials.
Rubio’s camp, though, did offer a statement.
“Immigration has always been a net benefit for America, and the actuary’s assessment of the immigration reform legislation is further validation of this,” his office wrote in an email, directing back to a previous statement the senator made. “As the immigration reform legislation moves forward, we should improve it to make sure its taxpayer protections are even stronger so that illegal immigrants cannot obtain federal benefits.”
And while it’s true that illegal immigrants will pay into the social security fund similar to hard-working Americans, is it really enough to expand its lifespan to accommodate both the more than 10 million illegal immigrants and millions of Millennials?
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) sought to pass a series of amendments blocking any illegal immigrant from receiving any local, state or federal benefits, but his amendments failed.
Americans did see one attempt to remedy the challenges young Americans face from a flood of immigrants set to enter the workforce.
The Corker-Hoeven amendment brought forth a solution for the increased competition with a measure called “Youth for Jobs,” but offered up a plan similar to Obama’s Jobs Act — one that failed to pass Congress and was labeled as a “second stimulus.”
Throwing money at the problem, as we learned from the President’s first stimulus bill, often doesn’t work.
So with the Senate’s vote on this monumental legislation, it has become apparent that the plight of young people has failed to cross lawmakers’ minds, and they will be left pumping hard-earned money into a benefits fund they will never see.
