President's Immigration Reform Plan Places Interests of Illegal Aliens Ahead of Americans, Says FAIR

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Jan 29, 2013, 04:09 ET

WASHINGTON, Jan. 29, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- President Obama's outline for overhauling the nation's immigration policy places the interests of illegal aliens above the vital interests of American workers and taxpayers, charged the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). The president's speech in Las Vegas sketched out a reform plan designed to aid and abet those who broke our immigration laws, increase competition for American workers, and pander to those who politically profit from illegal immigration, rather than truly fix a system that has been broken for decades.

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"President Obama's plan offers nothing to American workers except the certainty of even greater competition for scarce jobs and further suppression of their wages. It offers nothing to American taxpayers except assurance they will pay ever increasing costs as millions of low-skilled illegal immigrants move through the amnesty process and become eligible for government assistance programs," stated Dan Stein, president of FAIR.

"President Obama's immigration reform plan is sadly premised on the notion that it is the illegal immigrants who are the victims of our nation's dysfunctional immigration policies, and our policies must be changed to address their grievances," continued Stein. "In fact, it is the American people who are the true victims of our dysfunctional immigration policies, and especially this president's defiant refusal to enforce laws meant to protect them."

Immigration "reform," as outlined by the president, would not only leave our failed policy of family chain migration in place, but would actually speed up admissions of extended relatives who enter the country irrespective of their job skills and education. The plan also calls for increases in employment-based immigration, even as we are still grappling with historically high levels of unemployment affecting workers in virtually all segments of our labor market.

While promising amnesty and increased legal immigration, President Obama offered nothing regarding enforcement of the law, except maintaining the same non-enforcement policies he has implemented during his first term.

"Given President Obama's record on immigration enforcement, his promises to secure the border and enforce federal law are simply worthless," responded Stein. "For one thing the GAO recently chastised the administration for its claims that our borders are under control by noting that the administration does not even have a 'yardstick' for measuring operational control of our borders.

"Second, President Obama has asserted virtually unlimited discretion to ignore the immigration laws. He has also demonstrated a willingness to grant blanket work authorization to entire classes of illegal aliens," continued Stein. "Much like REAL ID, it could be years, even a decade or more, before the mandate for universal E-Verify is carried out. In the meantime, countless millions of new illegal immigrants are likely to show up with the assurance that as long as they do not commit a violent crime, there will be no consequence for violating our immigration laws.

"President Obama's actions during his first administration made it clear that his immigration policies are geared toward satisfying the economic and political interests of illegal aliens and their supporters. The legislative plan he outlined today confirms that the interests of the American people are not part of his vision of immigration reform," Stein concluded.

The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) is a national, nonprofit, public-interest, membership organization of concerned citizens who share a common belief that our nation's immigration policies must be reformed to serve the national interest.

Visit FAIR's website at www.fairus.org.

SOURCE FAIR