….and they will add to the economy. Others say, not true!
Nothing much new here. We reported previously that Murdoch had joined New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg in a new organization called Partnership for a New American Economy to join forces in lobbying for amnesty.
Murdoch told a House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration*** this week that:
“A full path to legalization–requiring unauthorized immigrants to register, undergo a security check, pay taxes and learn English–would bring these immigrants out of a shadow economy and add to our tax base,” said Murdoch.
He continued, “According to one study, a path to legalization would contribute an estimated $1.5 trillion to the Gross Domestic Product over 10 years.”
Center for Immigration Studies director of research, Steve Camarata, begged to differ.
In contrast to Murdoch’s and Bloomberg’s testimony, Steven Camarota, director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies, told the subcommittee that the economic losses caused by illegal immigrants outweighed the benefits.
He pointed out that the National Academy of Sciences has examined the fiscal impact of immigration.
“They found that the fiscal impact was enough to eat up the entire economic gain,” said Camarota. “So if you put the economic gain with the fiscal impact, you get no benefits at all, it would seem.”
Camarota also testified that illegal immigrants take jobs from Americans while also lowering wages. He said that the wage loss is 12 times bigger than the benefits.
Murdoch did say he wanted to close the borders. Here is what I don’t get, why not just close the borders NOW and then review all available options for the illegal aliens who got in before the complete closure?
The Stephen Colbert “joke”
***The majority members, specifically Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren, of the House Judciary Subcommittee on Immigration (look at the Democratic line up) that held the hearing which included the testimony of Rupert Murdoch and Steven Camarta (above) was also responsible for the fiasco of inviting comedian Stephen Colbert to testify in comedic character recently. One of several groups furious with Colbert’s joking testimony are families of Americans murdered by illegal aliens.
I wondered how Lofgren came to invite Colbert in an astonishing show of poor judgement and found this explanation:
In July, Colbert interviewed United Farm Workers (UFW) President Arturo Rodriguez on his show.
UFW works to legalize the millions of illegal immigrants working in the agriculture sector, and Rodriguez promoted one of their projects, “Take Our Jobs” which offers Americans the chance to try working in the fields if they really think good jobs are being lost to illegals.
In the interview, Colbert challenged Rodriguez with playful caricatures of anti-illegal immigration groups, for instance telling him that “They’re taking our jobs! Those jobs belong to American farm workers!”
Rodriguez replied, “Americans don’t want to work in the fields. It’s very difficult work, it requires a lot of expertise, and the conditions are horrid,” describing a recent day in which the temperature was in excess of 100 degrees.
Colbert retorted, “it was over 100 degrees this entire week here, I did my show, 22 minutes a night!”
Rodriguez then touted the Take Our Jobs initiative.
“It’s inviting American citizens that want to work in the fields, that want to take those jobs, that want to do that agricultural work, to come out and do it. So we put up a website, takeourjobs.org and we’re inviting Americans throughout the United States to come and try to work in agriculture if they believe that immigrant farm workers are taking away good American jobs.”
Colbert asked how many people had taken up the offer. The answer was three, so Colbert said “Make that four, I’ll do it.”
Since then Colbert reportedly participated in Take Our Jobs, and Rep. Zoe Lofgren, chairman of the immigration subcommittee, was there for that day.
Sources said the plan for Colbert to testify arose out of Colbert and Lofgren sharing that day together.
One happy thought! If Republicans return in January as the majority party in Congress, Zoe Lofgren will be OUT (publicity stunts and all) as Chairwoman of the subcommitee that, by the way, is responsible for refugee issues as well.