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In one fell swoop, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought the American economy to its knees and thrown many American workers out of their jobs. More than ten million Americans have lost their jobs in the last month, and St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard estimates that before this is over, unemployment could reach 32 percent thats nearly ten percentage points higher than the 24.9 percent jobless rate the nation suffered during the worst of the Great Depression in 1933.

But many of those workers who are laid off will eventually seek to return to their jobs in the nations small business sector, comprised of some 31 million small businesses across the country. These small companies ones with less than 500 employees range from hairdressers to bookstores, from small factories to restaurants, and last year these companies employed 52 percent of all Americans who work for the private sector. And while Washington is trying to pull a new rabbit out of its hat to keep these entrepreneurs open, many may not be able to survive an extended COVID-19 shutdown.

Despite a potentially bleak future, marked by economic ruin and previously unseen unemployment rates, theres one bad policy choice we can rely on the government to keep on making, albeit on a delayed basis, due to the pandemic. This nation will continue its historically high levels of immigration that are driven largely by chain migration. In 2019 the U.S. admitted:

And those numbers are just new admissions, theydont include extensions of status or changes from one status to another byforeigners already in the United States.

Why would the U.S. continue admitting such anenormous number of immigrants when it knows at least for the short term that its economy will be in shambles and its own citizens will be in desperateneed of work? Because our immigrationsystem operates on autopilot, with congressionally mandated levels for eachcategory. There is very little flexibility built into the system to allow theExecutive Branch to respond to changing economic and political conditionsthroughout the world. Its an outdated, immigration framework that operates ina vacuum, outside of the economic and political realities that affect the livesof everyday Americans.

The current immigration system is dysfunctionalbecause it doesnt address either international economics or geopolitics asthey currently exist. Thankfully, as theSupreme Court affirmed in Trump v. Hawaii,the president has the ability to temporarily close the border to broadcategories of immigrants in times of crisis. However, that power does notpermit our Chief Executive to create new immigration classifications or do awaywith existing ones. America needs an immigration system that is flexible enoughto meet the needs of our ever-changing economy.

And ifever there was a time to enact real immigration reform, it is now. Congressneeds to stop forcing American workers to compete with foreigner workers forgood jobs. It is time to make immigration policy work for Americans.

Visit link:
This Isnt What Immigration in the National Interest Looks Like - ImmigrationReform.com