U.S. Senate's immigration legislation hurts America's unemployed

Oregon senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden joining the Gang of Eight in the passage of Senate Bill 744 (S.744) -- termed comprehensive immigration reform by some, amnesty by others -- is unconscionable, considering the United States' June seasonally adjusted number of 12.2 million unemployed citizens; 7.6 percent of the country's civilian labor force.

According to the Pew Hispanic Center Unauthorized Immigrant Population National and State Trends, 2010.pdf there are 8 million unauthorized workers in the U.S.

With so many unemployed American citizens looking for jobs and 8 million unauthorized workers currently holding the jobs many citizens will do, the U.S. Senate's legislation at best seems oblivious to the plight of the unemployed in this country.

Two of the negative consequences of S. 744 are revealed in a June 2013 Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report.pdf which indicates the legislation will cause unemployment to increase through 2020 and average wages to decline through 2025.

An evaluation of the seasonally adjusted unemployment numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, News Release from July 18, 2013.pdf , titled "Regional and State Employment and Unemployment -- June" reveals unemployment rates in the states represented by the Gang of Eight plus their two Oregonian senatorial sidekicks: Oregon 7.9 percent; Arizona 8.0 percent; Colorado 7.0 percent; Florida 7.1 percent; Illinois 9.2 percent; New Jersey 8.7 percent; New York 7.5 percent; and South Carolina 8.1 percent. Five of the preceding eight states had higher unemployment numbers than the national average.

During the five-week summer congressional recess, if Senators Merkley and Wyden choose to return to Oregon, the senators should take a look at the number of unemployed in the state and unemployment numbers of the individual counties they choose visit across the state.

In Oregon there were 158,147 citizens unemployed in June, according to the Oregon Employment Department.pdf; the state ranked 16th among the 50 states for the percentage of unemployed.

Locally, Washington County had 19,715 unemployed in June; 12.5 percent of the state's unemployed.

Beyond Washington, 24 of 36 Oregon counties (66.7 percent of the states counties) in June had a higher unemployment rate than the national average of 7.6 percent: Eleven of the counties had double-digit unemployment, with Crook County topping the list at 12.6 percent.

Back to the Pew Hispanic Center report: according to the report, there are an estimated 110,000 unauthorized workers in Oregon.

If S. 744 is passed by both sides of Congress and signed into law by the president, the addition of 110,000 unauthorized workers into the state's civilian labor force, if the CBO report is right, will likely increase unemployment in Oregon. This would be a setback for a state still mired and struggling to come out of a severe recession.

Hopefully, the U.S. House of Representatives will take a more incremental approach to any type of immigration reform and first pass standalone legislation requiring a federally mandated national employment verification system like E-Verify, which the federal government currently uses on all its new hires.

During the congressional recess, Oregon's 158,147 unemployed U.S. citizens should contact Sens. Merkley and Wyden, along with Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, and tell them Oregonians should never have to compete for scarce jobs now or in the future with persons illegally in the country; and furthermore, the U.S. Congress passing a standalone federally mandated E-Verify system is the best way to get those unemployed in the state and across the country back to fulltime work.