[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 109 (Tuesday, July 14, 2015)]
[House]
[Page H5121]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




CUT ILLEGAL ALIEN LABOR SUPPLY THAT COSTS AMERICAN JOBS AND SUPPRESSED 
                                INCOMES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Alabama (Mr. Brooks) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BROOKS of Alabama. Mr. Speaker, yesterday Democrat Presidential 
candidate Hillary Clinton unveiled her economic program stating: ``The 
defining economic challenge of our time is clear. We must raise incomes 
for hard-working Americans so they can afford a middle class life. We 
must drive strong and steady income growth that lifts up families''; 
and, ``The measure of our success must be how much incomes rise for 
hard-working families.''
  Clinton concluded that: ``If you work hard and do your part, you 
should be able to get ahead. But over the past several decades, that 
bargain has eroded.''
  Hillary Clinton identifies the problem and goals; however, I submit 
her trickle-down Federal Government dictates solution, while splendid 
rhetoric, misses the target entirely.
  What changed over the past several decades that eroded the American 
dream?
  Three decades ago, America gave amnesty to millions of illegal 
aliens. That amnesty beget millions and millions in more illegal 
aliens. This illegal alien tsunami has done more to take jobs from and 
suppress wages of struggling American families than anything else over 
the past three decades.
  The Pew Hispanic Center established in 2009 that American workers 
lost 7.8 million job opportunities to illegal aliens. A more recent 
FAIR study estimates Americans lost 8.5 million job opportunities to 
illegal aliens.
  Economic studies reveal that wage suppression caused by the surge in 
cheap, illegal alien labor costs American high school graduates an 
estimated $800 per year and America's low-skilled labor an estimated 
$2,300 per year in income. But it is not just illegal alien labor that 
undermines American opportunity and the American Dream for American 
citizens.
  America's generous legal immigration policy created a second tsunami 
of legal foreign labor that doubles the economic damage to struggling 
American families. Census Bureau, Homeland Security, and Labor 
Department data offers a startling and sobering insight for Americans 
in the 16-65 age bracket.
  While the American economy created 5.6 million net new jobs in the 
16-65 age bracket over the past 14 years, American-born citizens lost 
127,000 net jobs. All net job gains and more went to illegal and legal 
immigrants. While American-born citizens lost 127,000 jobs, foreign-
born persons gained 5.7 million jobs.
  Worse yet, when you factor in population growth, there were 17 
million more Americans in the 16-65 age bracket not working in 2014 
than in 2000.
  Contrary to the propaganda of amnesty and open border proponents and 
their media allies, immigrants gained across the labor market in lower 
skilled jobs, such as maintenance, construction, and food service, and 
middle skilled jobs, like office support and healthcare support, and 
higher skilled jobs, including management, computers, and healthcare 
practitioners.
  The propaganda that immigrants only do jobs Americans won't do is not 
supported by fact. Immigrants gained jobs while Americans lost jobs in 
each of the following high-paying industries: architecture, 
engineering, transportation and material moving, office and 
administrative support.
  Further, American-born citizens of all major races lost ground. The 
percentage of working African Americans dropped 9.2 percentage points; 
Hispanic Americans dropped 7.7 percentage points; Caucasian Americans 
dropped 6.1 percentage points.
  In a dig at Jeb Bush, Clinton added that Americans ``don't need a 
lecture, they need a raise.''
  Mr. Speaker, Hillary Clinton is right. America does not need 
lectures. America needs solutions. And the number one job and economic 
solution for Americans is securing America's borders and implementing a 
rational immigration policy that reflects economic conditions and 
protects American jobs and American wages for struggling American 
families.

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