‘Human cost of delay’ on immigration action differs between elites and regular Americans

Time magazine provides almost the perfect example of how little America’s opinion elites identify with America’s working classes.It comes today at the end of a rather helpful article by Alex Altman, entitled “Four Hurdles That Could Block Immigration Reform.”  http://swampland.time.com/2013/03/20/four-hurdles-that-could-block-immigration-reform/print/Despite the New York Times and a number of other media trumpeting that comprehensive immigration reform looks to be almost a done deal after yesterday’s Rand Paul speech in favor of a presence and jobs amnesty for 11-19 million illegal aliens, Altman detailed a number or realities that will make passage quite difficult.But at the end he indicated that not to pass the comprehensive amnesty bill would be something of a tragedy:Meanwhile, the human cost of the political stalemate is high. Each day, 1,400 undocumented immigrants are deported.”Wow, there are 20 million Americans who want a full-time job and can’t find one.  Is there no human cost to the fact that millions of foreign citizens are allowed to take U.S. jobs instead of these suffering jobless Americans? A large fraction of them are less-educated Americans who are competing in the same occupations where illegal aliens (mostly less-educated) currently hold some 7 million construction, manufacturing and service jobs (not agriculture).I look at the 7 million illegal job-holders and think that every day we don’t enforce our laws, millions of Americans are denied the dignity of having a job.  That’s the human cost I see.But I suspect that Altman is indicative of most of America’s journalists who simply can’t identify with their fellow Americans who didn’t go to college.To our country’s opinion elites, the human tragedy is 1,400 illegal immigrants being removed from the labor market each day (and opening up their jobs to unemployed Americans).But I do agree that there is a huge human cost to the stalemate on immigration policy.  We are in our fifth year of an unemployment crisis and in the third decade of wage depression for the wage-earners of our society, and yet Congress still can’t act to stop the illegal labor pool and reduce the more than 100,000 new work permits given to foreign workers each month.ROY BECK is Founder & CEO of NumbersUSA