Rick Santorum Says ‘Legal’ Immigrants Hurt ‘Native Born’ Americans

[KamaAina]

http://bluenationreview.com/santorum-legal-immigrants-hurt-native-born-americans/

Santorum, who doesn’t look even a little bit Native American if you ask me, made the case that legal immigration is just as bad as illegal immigration because legal immigrants bring the median income down:

“So when people tell me the problem is just illegal immigration, they’re wrong. They’re wrong… We are almost at the same level of non-native born in this country they were at in 1920. And in 1920 they realized, wait a minute, it’s affecting our workers… Median income is going down. Why? Part of the reason is that we’re bringing floods of legal, not illegal, legal immigrants into the country.”

I hate to burst Santorum’s bubble but, since 2009 the number of immigrants coming to the US has declined. It’s down by 12.4 percent, according to the Department of Homeland Security....

Santorum, who would not be living or working in this country were it not for legal immigration, seems to be struggling with one of the most basic concept of the United States – that we are a nation of immigrants.

Oh, and be sure to Google "santorum" early and often.

[NoJusticeNoPeace]

1. Santorum is representative of teaparty, republican, NON Liberal thinking...

"I got mine, FUCK YOU if you want yours now"


The last thing he is, by the way, is a KREESCHUN...

It god damn INFURIATES me to think he claims to be.

I know REAL christians, only a handful, and he aint one of em.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

2. Scratching my head.

Aren't most of the immigrants that folks like Santorum get snooty about from South of the border? In which case they're probably a lot closer genetically to the folks called Native Americans than the pasty white European ancestors that no doubt inhabit Santorum's family tree. Prior to the last couple hundred years, there wasn't really a 'border' down there, and really, most of the folks who lived in what we call 'the southwest' were Natives or Hispanics.

[Warren Stupidity]

3. If the immigration demographic is significantly younger than the general population

it would indeed tend to bring the median income down, as younger workers generally earn less than older workers. It also fills in the demographic gap in SS funding. What that frothy residue neglects to mention is that both of those facts are net positives for the economy as a whole.

[outside]

4. Talk to people in bay area.

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/516546/silicon-valley-fights-for-immigrant-talent/

Silicon Valley Fights for Immigrant Talent.
The technology industry’s most important legislative goal? It’s to let the foreigners stay.

About half of science, technology, and engineering workers in Silicon Valley are foreign-born, compared to a quarter in the rest of the United States, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The technology industry, including FWD.us, a lobbying group launched in April by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, want a “startup visa” for entrepreneurs like Beckers who raise money from American investors, a simpler track for foreign science graduates to win residency, and, most controversially, an increase in the number of H-1Bs, the visas available to specialized temporary workers, from 65,000 to 110,000 per year.<snip>

The foreign-born engineers working with visas will work for less and are keeping wages low in that field. We also see this in oil and steel. Older American engineers are being pushed out and wages are dropping.

[muntrv]

5. Wasn't Santorum's grandparents part of that flood of legal immigrants in the 1920s?

[KamaAina]

6. Stop making sense, dammit!

[appalachiablue]

8. His grandparents immigrated from Italy. He's a hypocrite, liar and cheat who gets by as

a well paid lobbyist in the DC area and lives in a Va. exurb in Loudon County. I tell my PA friends in Pgh that I'm going to send him back there, but they'd glad to be rid of him, don't want him back. While living in NoVa he said that his kids were PA residents in order to get freer (online) schooling, so he cheated PA out of taxes and more. He's a worthless unending menace.

[MiniMe]

7. And how far back does Frothy consider "Native Born"?

I'm sure that most people, and I am one of them, can only go back to my parents or grandparents. My grandparents came over to Ellis Island around 1920 or so, and it was my great grandparents on the other side. I guess that is at least better than Mitt, his father was born in Mexico.

[dembotoz]

9. useful definition--illegal -- anyone who came here after my ancestors did

[treestar]

10. People think that, but there's no reason to believe

wages would go up because if more workers are needed, the business wouldn't expand. They couldn't. And they wouldn't raise the wages of the already existing workers because they can't expand. People like Santorum think work can be considered part of supply and demand just like a product.

Illegal immigration may hurt because those workers can't complain of violations of the wage and hour laws, etc. Legal ones can, so they would not "bring wages down."