This is where VDH supports amnesty.
The Chamber's argument is that the service, agriculture, and construction industries would collapse if illegals were "immediately removed." This, they say, would cause a depression level recession in the country until it was sorted out. They believe those industries are the location of so many illegals that it wouldn't be able to replace their jobs with able workers very quickly. They have a point. Any deportations, some of these people say, should take place over about a decade to allow for a gradual transition.
This is just BS. The Chamber of Commerce supports amnesty and the doubling of guest worker programs. They take jobs away from Americans and depress wages. With 21 million Americans looking for work or underemployed, there is no shortage of labor.
Still No Evidence of a Labor Shortage Immigrant and native employment in the fourth quarter of 2013
Congress is currently considering immigration reform packages that include work permits for those in the country illegally, as well as substantial increases in future legal immigration. Yet the latest employment data continue to show an enormous number of working-age Americans not working, particularly those with modest levels of education.
Among the findings:
In the fourth quarter of 2013, the standard unemployment rate (referred to as U-3) for native-born adults who have not completed high school was 16.6 percent, while for those with only a high school education it was 8.5. The U-3 unemployed are people who have looked for a job in the last four weeks.
The broader U-6 measure of unemployment — which includes those want to work, but have not looked recently, and those forced to work part-time — was 28.7 percent for native-born adults who have not completed high school and 16.5 percent for those with only a high school education.
The total number of native-born, working-age adults (18 to 65) of any education level not working (unemployed or out the labor force) was 50.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2012 — 8.8 million more than in the fourth quarter of 2007, and 14.7 million more than in the same quarter of 2000.
The share of working-age (18 to 65) natives holding a job has not recovered from the Great Recession. In the fourth quarter of 2013, 31 percent were not working, something that has barely improved in the last five years.
In the fourth quarter of 2013, there were only two working-age natives holding a job for every one that was not employed. This represents a huge deterioration. As recently as 2000, there were three working-age adults holding a job for every one not working.
As for those illegals already here, green cards and pathways to citizenship are irrelevant. There is already a green card and immigration program. If they want one, then have them do it according to the current system. Their turn will eventually come up from their own side of the border, and then they'll be legal.
As someone who has actually issued immigrant visas, most of them would not qualify for a tourist visa let alone a permanent immigrant visa. And there are four million intending legal immigrants waiting overseas for their turn to enter. They have completed all the paperwork, background investigations, physicals, etc.