Immigration Moratorium Is a Goode Idea

            Recently Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), and with 20 other congressmen, called for effective enforcement of immigration laws to free up for American citizens the jobs held by eight million illegal aliens who now work in this country. “With a 10 percent unemployment rate,” said Smith, “now is the time for the Obama Administration to stand up for citizens and legal immigrant workers.”

            One who agrees is former Virginia Congressman Virgil Goode. “But,” said Goode, “we need to go a step further to protect displaced American workers. . . . The first priority . . .  needs to be the interests of American citizens—both native born and naturalized—not “legal immigrant workers”. . . . Even if we completely stopped illegal immigration tomorrow, the government still issues 75,000 permanent work visas and approximately 50,000 temporary work visas every month. These 125,000 jobs should go to Americans first.”

            The proper response now, Goode affirmed, is a “moratorium” on immigration. He added that this would not include spouses of citizens, people with extraordinary skills, and a few other special categories, but it would cut off employment based immigration until “Americans are back on their feet.”

            Goode lamented that since the beginning of the current economic crisis, there has been scarcely any discussion of this idea, one which he described as “just plain old common sense.” With so many Americans without jobs, said Goode, “no one can say with a straight face that immigrants are doing the jobs Americans won’t do.”

            Once a moratorium is in place, the former congressman stated, it would be appropriate to reassess our entire immigration policy. Presently it is the consequence and logical extension of the 1965 immigration act. One of its leading sponsors, Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA), sold it with false promises, claiming it would not “cause American workers to lose their jobs” . . . and “our cities [would] not be flooded with a million immigrants annually.”

            The vested interests behind mass immigration, those for cheap votes and cheap labor, know very well that a moratorium is an obvious remedy for American workers. But they want no discussion of this remedy because they are totally indifferent to the suffering for their fellow citizens. The silence will prevail until jobless Americans and those concerned about them raise their voices and refuse to be quiet.