A Note from the Editor: Spotlight on Immigration Profiteers

By Wayne Lutton
Published in The Social Contract
Volume 22, Number 3 (Spring 2012)
Issue theme: "Immigration profiteers"
https://www.thesocialcontract.com/artman2/publish/tsc_22_3/tsc_22_3_editor.shtml




From the Merriam-Webster Dictionary:

Profiteer: one who makes what is considered an unreasonable
profit.... Term first known in 1912.

Years ago the famed contrarian novelist Edward Abbey
observed, “Immigration gives liberals their cheap cause
and conservatives their cheap labor.” In this issue, our contributors
take a closer look at some of the special interests that benefit the most
from current United States immigration policies. These are the groups
which work tirelessly to blunt grassroots calls for enforcement and who
jeopardize the well-being of American workers.

In this issue, readers learn that

• Illegal aliens are signing up for the Earned Income Tax Credit
(EITC), which has become the largest cash transfer program for lowincome
families in the United States. In addition, illegals, in untold
numbers, are securing billions of dollars in Additional Child Tax Credits
(ACTC). This program has been expanded by the Obama Administration.
Recommendations to reduce fraud have not been enacted.

• Foreign nationals send billions of dollars back to their homelands
every year. This massive transfer of wealth is facilitated by
banks, credit unions, the U.S. Post Office, money transfer operators,
such as Western Union, and chain stores. All of these institutions lobby
to discourage enforcement efforts at the federal and state levels.

• Work visa programs, such as the H-1B, L-1, and others, enable
employers to reap huge profits at the expense of educated Americans.
As Dr. Gene Nelson documents in his special report, from 1975
to 2010, over 37 million foreigners were recruited to work in the U.S.
via 5 high-skill visa programs. The economic loss to Americans totals
an astonishing $10 trillion or more.

Collateral Damage

In the real world, the number of full-time jobs has not budged
in over 12 years, while the number of part-time jobs — which people
can’t live on — has skyrocketed to over 28 million.

Individuals’ lives are placed on hold. Something I have noticed
is how many people are putting off necessary health care. A report issued
by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York details that Americans
60 and older still owe tens of billions of dollars in student loans, many
of which are delinquent. Younger Americans are taking on new student
loan debt in hopes of becoming more competitive in the labor
force. Neither the President nor leading GOP contenders have called
for a moratorium on legal immigration and a real crackdown on illegal
aliens, which would open jobs to American workers. Yet they all talk
about the need for “economic growth.”

It is long past time to end mass immigration. Broader community
interests and our national well-being should come before the profits of
special interests.

About the author

Wayne Lutton, Ph.D. is editor of The Social Contract.

Copyright 2007 The Social Contract Press, 445 E Mitchell Street, Petoskey, MI 49770; ISSN 1055-145X
(Article copyrights extend to the first date the article was published in The Social Contract)