Civil Rights Advocate Tells Obama: Amnesty Harms Black Workers

Peter Kirsanow, as U.S. Civil Rights Commissioner, says in an Oct. 27 letter to Obama and the Congressional Black Caucus that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services' recently revealed preparations for a huge ID "surge" upped his alarm over what the president has planned. 

“Granting work authorization to millions of illegal immigrants will devastate the black community, which is already struggling in the wake of the recession that began in 2007 and the subsequent years of malaise,” he explained.

"Illegal immigration has a disparate impact on African-American men, because these men are disproportionately represented in the low-skilled labor force," Kirsanow added. 

Noting that he is writing as a single member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and not on behalf of the entire body, Kirsanow argued in a lengthy letter to Obama and Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-OH), the chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, that expected executive actions would have negative effects on low-skilled workers, particularly African Americans, and higher-skilled tech workers. 

“My concerns center around the effect such grant of legal status will have on two subsets of American workers: low-skilled workers, particularly low-skilled black workers, and high-skilled STEM workers.”

Kirsanow has raised concerns about the deleterious effects of amnesty – and increases in low-skilled immigration – on African Americans in the past, but he wrote that the recent revelation that the government is seeking supplies for up to 34 million green cards and work permits has “renewed” those concerns.

In his missive, the Civil Rights Commissioner recalled a briefing the Commission held in 2008, in which all the diverse range of witnesses noted that illegal immigration has had a negative impact on African American men, because they “are disproportionately represented in the low-skilled labor force,” in which illegal immigrants compete. He further noted that executive amnesty would also cause such harm. 

“The proposed executive order will also have a negative effect on young African-Americans at the outset of their working lives. Young, low-skilled workers are facing enormous difficulties in this economy,” Kirsanow wrote.

“Since 1986, we have seen that granting legal status to illegal immigrants, or even mere rumors that legal status will be granted, increases illegal immigration. Likewise, the evidence indicates that the flood of illegal immigrants across our southern border is mostly attributable to your directive granting temporary legal status to people allegedly brought to the United States as children. This is unsurprising. When you incentivize bad behavior, you get more of it,” he wrote. 

Kirsanow further questioned the need for more STEM workers, given that wages for such workers have not increased in the face of an apparent shortage. He argues that American STEM students are as capable as foreign students.

“Finally, I would like to say a few words about the supposed need for an increased number of high-tech visas. There is little evidence, other than the protestations of tech titans and politicians, that there is a shortage of STEM workers in the United States. Statistics suggest otherwise,” he wrote.