He is ill-informed or he thinks we are stupid. There are so many falsehoods and Orwellian uses of language in this speech, it is disgraceful. Why is he doing it? Naked political ambition and his libertarian bent that sees the free movement of labor regardless of borders. It is naive and dangerous.
Not to stop most immigrants from coming-we welcome them and in fact should seek to increase legal immigration.
The proposition that we need more legal immigrants while 23 million Americans are looking for jobs is insane. During the decade ending in 2010, we had more legal immigrants enter this country in our history, 13.9 million. During that same period we suffered a net loss of 400,000 jobs.
The U.S. adds one international migrant (net) every 36 seconds. Immigrants account for one in 8 U.S. residents, the highest level in more than 90 years. In 1970 it was one in 21; in 1980 it was one in 16; and in 1990 it was one in 13. In a decade, it will be one in 7, the highest it has been in our history. And by 2050, one in 5 residents of the U.S. will be foreign-born.
The nation’s immigrant population (legal and illegal) reached 40 million in 2010, the highest number in our history. The U.S. immigrant population has doubled since 1990, nearly tripled since 1980, and quadrupled since 1970, when it stood at 9.7 million. Of the 40 million immigrants in the country in 2010, 13.9 million arrived in 2000 or later making it the highest decade of immigration in American history, even though there was a net loss of jobs during the decade.