Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum, both presidential hopefuls for the Republican Party, are suggesting a potentially controversial way to boost job prospects for US citizens: Admit fewer legal immigrants into the nation.
The notion, absent from US presidential politics for at least 20 years, could help them tap into the frustrations of working-class voters who have struggled with stagnant wages and reduced job opportunities since the economic crisis that began in 2007.
It could also complicate prospects for a comprehensive fix to the nation’s outdated immigration system and paint the Republican Party as anti-immigrant at a time when it needs to broaden its support base of Hispanics and Asians, two of the biggest groups of legal immigrants in the US.
“This hurts our efforts. I think people need to tone down the rhetoric,” said Hugo Chavez-Rey, chairman of a Hispanic Republican group in the battleground state of Colorado.
Since 1989, the US has been letting in about 1 million new immigrants per year, a level comparable to the last great wave of European immigration at the turn of the 20th century.
The US Census Bureau estimates that there are now 43.3 million foreign-born residents in the US and that within 10 years, immigrants will account for 15 percent of the population, a record high.
About two-in-five US citizens think those levels are too high, according to polling by Gallup.
Many Republican presidential candidates are vocal champions of legal immigration. Former Florida governor Jeb Bush said more legal immigrants are needed to boost economic growth, while US Senator Lindsey Graham said they can help care for an aging population.
Walker said the US should consider restricting immigration levels when the economy is struggling and raise them when it is booming.
Advocates of limited immigration are thrilled that Republican presidential hopefuls are taking up their cause.
“Walker’s the one who really put this on the map,” said Roy Beck, executive director at NumbersUSA, a group that wants to scale back legal immigration. “He has said it so many times now I do not see how he could possibly back out of it.”
Santorum also wants to reduce immigration by 25 percent as part of a broader agenda to improve the economic prospects of blue-collar workers.
“I know this will be termed somehow as anti-Hispanic or anti-immigrant, but I would just say that immigration policies should be policies that serve the interest of the American public,” he said at a news conference last month.
Economists have found that immigration has little to no effect on US wages over the long term.
Some say that immigration has boosted overall wages in the US because immigrants create more demand for goods and services and they generally do not directly compete with US-born workers for the same jobs.
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