Immigration Debate Heats Up With Pending Supreme Court Case, Clinton Contradictions On Jobs
With the Supreme Court of the United States in session for the summer, the court is hearing a variety of cases that include the rights of suspected criminals, as well as a case involving RJR Nabisco, where the European Community accused the company of engaging in money laundering on a global scale. For the average American, no cases are probably more important than the ones the court will hear related to immigration.
Immigration policy affects jobs, welfare policy, and many other issues related to the average American’s life. The most important case pending before the Supreme Court of the United States is related to whether or not President Obama can suspend deportations of illegal immigrants and grant work permits to millions of these immigrants. As reported by NBC News, 22 states have a suit pending against the federal government over the expansion of DACA and DAPA, programs instituted by Obama.
Supreme Court upheld Arizona immigration law. It is still a crime to sneak into the USA without permission. pic.twitter.com/kxbVopB8S8
— Hector Morenco (@hectormorenco) June 22, 2016
With a vacant seat on the court, it’s possible that the decision could end in a tie. According to Jorge Mario Cabrera, the communications director for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, the situation is win or lose for illegal immigrants.
“Ultimately, for our community, it’s either win or lose. For families anxiously waiting the past two years since the announcement of DAPA, they want to hear they can potentially emerge from the shadows and contribute to their communities as we saw those who got DACA do.”
Fox News reported that the Supreme Court was expected to deliver decisions on both abortion and immigration. The death of Justice Antonin Scalia complicated the issue of listening to cases because it means a loss for those who receive 4-4 decisions on their cases. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg said that a tie could mean a default victory for lower court rulings.
“Eight, as you know, is not a good number for a multi-member court. That means no opinions and no precedential value; an equal division is essentially the same as a denial of review.”
Impt piece in WSJ re govt presenting flawed data to Supreme Court in immigration detention case. https://t.co/Aow8zT0Eef #not1more
— Ahilan Arulanantham (@ahilan_toolong) June 20, 2016
The lack of precedence in these cases would leave a lot of legal uncertainty nationwide. The court suffered deadlock twice this term. The last time was in a case related to religious affiliated employers. The case involved whether or not Catholic nuns must follow the Obama contraception mandate. The Supreme Court doesn’t give opinions on the merits of cases.
Immigration has been a popular topic for the presidential candidates too. Breitbart reported that presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s immigration policy undermines her economic narrative related to American families. Clinton claims that she wants to help hard-working American families gain an income as well as creating good paying jobs. Her claims of wanting to create solid work opportunities for American families is incompatible with wanting to flood the American job market with low skilled foreign workers who will work for low wages.
Abortion and immigration demonstrators in front of the Supreme Court, awaiting rulings which could come in minutes pic.twitter.com/4VrL0eKyfE
— Geoff Bennett (@GeoffRBennett) June 20, 2016
Immigration actually affects the wages of both high-skilled and low-skilled workers. Manhattan Institute scholar Heather MacDonald said that the law of supply and demand also applies to labor.
“Bringing in more skilled immigrants will decrease salaries at the higher end,” and unskilled immigration “not only depresses wages for less-educated Americans, but imposes significant social costs on taxpayers as well (through trying to close the achievement gap between the children of uneducated Hispanic immigrants, on the one hand, and whites and Asians, on the other; through subsidized health care; and through police and prison expenditures).”
Clinton’s immigration policy would most negatively affect native-born Hispanic and black Americans because so many are in direct competition with illegal immigrants for the jobs that are available. Harvard Professor George Borjas explained the affects of illegal immigration on workers in an analysis he recently released.
[Photo by John Moore/Getty Images]
