Why would Congress import 10,000 immigrants from Ireland?

By Frosty Wooldridge

Just when you think Congress can’t do worse, they fool you and do much worse. This week, Senators Charles Schumer and Scott Brown urged colleagues to pass a bill giving work visas to 10,000 Irishmen to come to America and displace more Americans from jobs.

Never mind that 14 million Americans remain jobless, standing in unemployment lines, sitting in welfare lines and eating at soup kitchens. Never mind home foreclosures, families living in cars and 46 million Americans subsisting on food stamps.

President of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, www.fairus.org , talks about it.  Join FAIR in order to bring some sanity to our immigration crisis.

“Senators Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Scott Brown (R-Mass.) are urging colleagues to pass an amended version of a bill that would admit 10,500 Irish nationals to work in the U.S. each year,” said Stein. “A vote could come as early as this week. The legislation, misleadingly titled the “Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act” (S. 1983), would expand the E-3 visa program specifically to benefit workers from Ireland. The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) strongly opposes the E-3 provisions in this bill because it would adversely affect unemployed American workers and is designed to give preference to people based on their nationality.

“Contrary to its title, the bill would not promote high-skilled immigration. In order to qualify for a guest worker visa under S. 1983, an Irish national would need only two years work experience in a particular field, or a high school diploma. The bill would also admit an unlimited number of spouses and dependent children of E-3 visa holders.

“Senators Schumer and Brown seem to have forgotten that they represent people in New York and Massachusetts, not Ireland.  While some 1 million residents of those two states remain unemployed, their senators are busy creating job opportunities in this country for citizens of Ireland. Not only would an additional 10,500 unnecessary workers flood an already weak labor market, but the bill Senators Schumer and Brown are promoting does not even require employers to seek a U.S. worker before filling it with an E-3 guest worker.

Approval of S. 1983 would also represent a giant leap backwards for U.S. immigration policy by carving out a special preference for a single nationality.

“This bill would set us on the road back to the bad-old-days when immigrants were admitted or excluded based solely on national origin. No one has been more harshly critical of our current policy that gives preference to immigrants based on extended family connections than FAIR, but a return to national origin preferences would only exacerbate our broken immigration system. Inevitably, granting special privileges to one nationality would lead to advocates for other national and ethnic groups to seek similar preferential treatment,” Stein cautioned.

“Congress needs to focus its attention on the 23 million unemployed and underemployed in the United States, not the unemployed in Ireland. Congress also needs to reform our immigration policies by reducing overall numbers and admitting people based on individual merit, not by carving out more special preferences for groups with powerful lobbyists,” concluded Stein.

About FAIR

Founded in 1979, FAIR is the country’s largest immigration reform group.  With over 250,000 members nationwide, FAIR fights for immigration policies that serve national interests, not special interests.  FAIR believes that immigration reform must enhance national security, improve the economy, protect jobs, preserve our environment, and establish a rule of law that is recognized and enforced. Visit FAIR’s website at www.fairus.org

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Frosty Wooldridge is a member of the board of directors at FAIR.