The Obama administration is issuing so many green cards to immigrants that just the monthly doling out of over 83,000 dwarfs the total high school graduating class of all South Carolina schools — and those kids have to compete with the green card holders for jobs.
A fact sheet provided by the office of Sen. Jeff Sessions, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on Immigration and the National Interest, revealed that the United States grants “Lawful Permanent Resident Status,” or the “green card,” to 83,333 new immigrants a month. That is some 1 million a year.
The subcommittee likes to put that in perspective and offered up the South Carolina graduating class as an example. They gave diplomas to 45,137 students in 2014. That works out to 22 green cards to legal immigrants for every South Carolina graduate.
In a release provided to Secrets, the subcommittee said:
“Not only will these 45,137 young men and women compete against these new Lawful Permanent Residents for jobs and spots in universities and trade schools, but they will also face competition from the approximately 700,000 guest workers allowed to work in the United States through other visa programs each year, or the roughly 500,000 foreign students who are permitted to study in the United States each year (and in some cases, who have been permitted to work in the United States contrary to Congressional authorization).”
Getting a green card is a big deal. It allows an immigrant to stay in the U.S. as long as they do not commit crimes. It also provides access to Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security’s Supplemental Security Income, food stamps, and cash welfare, and it allows them to apply for citizenship after five years, said the subcommittee.
The Senate is home to a huge fight over green cards and it is expected to become part of the presidential debate as the issue of jobs, especially at the lower wage levels, heats up.
Sessions has argued against expanding the program, noting how many Americans are forced to work multiple low-wage jobs to keep pace. He also cites the huge, and growing, number of Americans who have given up looking for work.
“The civilian labor force participation rate has steadily dropped since President Obama took office, and is currently at 62.7 percent – meaning that the percentage of Americans who are currently not working is at a level not seen in nearly four decades. The share of men in their prime working years who do not have jobs has tripled since 1967. Workplace participation rates for women have declined more than three full percentage points since 2000. Median household incomes today are $4,000 less than they were fifteen years ago,” said the subcommittee.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected].
