Category: Guest Authors

DOJ May Intervene In Florida Transport Plans

By Joe Guzzardi

Hillary Clinton, Yale Law School ’73, said on MSNBC that sending 50 illegal immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard was “literally human trafficking” by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Harvard Law School, ‘05. The MSNBC co-host, Joe Scarborough, University of Florida School of Law ‘90, accused DeSantis of using innocent people as political pawns.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Harvard Law School ‘95, suggested that DeSantis and fellow Texan Gov. Greg Abbott, Vanderbilt University Law School, ’84, should send more migrants to blue cities and states. Cruz, pointing to the millions of illegal immigrants that the administration has admitted, bussed and flown around the nation, called President Joe Biden, Syracuse University School of Law ’68 and former Senate Judiciary Chair, “the biggest human trafficker on the face of the planet.” Biden demanded that the governors stop their “un-American” political stunts.

Clinton, Scarborough and Biden have support from like-minded lawyers. Professors from Notre Dame, Georgetown and other universities, along with civil rights advocates, came down hard on DeSantis and Abbott. The harshest criticism came from California Gov. Gavin Newsom who requested that the Department of Justice open an investigation into the Martha’s Vineyard flights on charges that the migrants were “kidnapped.”

Move along, nothing to see here, just angry lawyers going after each other hammer and tongs. The voting public, however, is grappling with a contradiction. If the Biden administration can order Customs and Border Patrol to put thousands of aliens on buses and planes to send them throughout the interior of the United States, then the same flexibility should apply to the governors, assuming, of course, that the migrants agree to be flown to Martha’s Vineyard or driven to Washington, D.C. or New York.

Jonathan Turley, George Washington University law professor, provided his perspective. Turley wrote that to call transporting aliens kidnapping is “to take a flight from one’s legal senses.” On his blog, Turley stated that human trafficking, a legal term, is altogether different than moving humans in traffic. The governors’ actions aren’t an attempt to put humans, through fraud, coercion or force, into peonage, involuntary servitude or sex slavery. In conclusion, Turley wrote that many objections could be made to the governors’ transport programs, but not kidnapping and human trafficking.

The tensions between the states and the cities are just beginning. DeSantis promised to fly more migrants to other sanctuary cities, but not necessarily Martha’s Vineyard. That way, DeSantis explained, the sanctuaries can “put their money where their mouth is.” A possible 2024 presidential candidate, DeSantis may sense that while some American voters support immigration, they object to Biden-style open borders.

Political expediency is at play in Texas, too. Abbott is up for re-election in November, and he’s counting on removing illegal immigrants as integral to his victory. The border invasion is expensive. As part of its $4 billion Operation Lone Star program, Texas has installed more than 42 miles of concertina wire along its Southern border near Eagle Pass and Del Rio, two communities through which millions have passed.

A potential roadblock – a boulder, really – may stand in the governors’ way. In a statement, the Boston nonprofit, Lawyers for Civil Rights, promised to investigate “the inhumane manner in which they [the Martha’s Vineyard migrants] were shipped across the country, to determine the responsible parties, whether state or federal criminal laws against human trafficking and kidnapping were violated, and what other legal remedies are available.”

Even though no evidence exists that the migrants were treated inhumanely, and as Turley warned, trafficking and kidnapping are specious charges, LCR will press on. The legal advocates hope to gather pro bono attorneys, immigration experts, law enforcement and social services providers.

If that’s not enough, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco confirmed that the DOJ is reviewing inquiries like Newsom’s calling for an investigation. The DOJ’s involvement, inevitable in the Biden administration, especially if the governors escalate, would be the end of the line for the governors’ strategy to give sanctuary cities a tiny taste of their own medicine. Not a single voice among the many urged border enforcement.

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Joe Guzzardi is a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist who writes about immigration and related social issues. Joe joined Progressives for Immigration Reform in 2018 as an analyst after a ten-year career directing media relations for Californians for Population Stabilization, where he also was a Senior Writing Fellow. A native Californian, Joe now lives in Pennsylvania. Contact him at jguzzardi@pfirdc.org.

Secretary Walsh Confused About Facts

By Joe Guzzzardi

Give Department of Labor Secretary Marty Walsh grudging credit. Walsh may be the only honest man in President Biden’s administration. When asked to comment on the August Bureau of Labor Statistics jobs report and the alleged worker shortage, Walsh didn’t give a mealy-mouthed reply.

Instead, Walsh, supposedly appointed and confirmed to represent the American labor force, came right out and talked about the job market’s “inequity.” Walsh elaborated that in his discussions with corporate officials, they’re unanimously in favor of simplifying the visa process, and of “immigration reform,” well-known amnesty code words. True nirvana for Walsh and his corporate overlords would be more immigration, occurring more quickly, “the only way” to improve the economy, the labor secretary insisted.

Analysts who have followed Walsh’s political career aren’t surprised by his abandonment of American workers in favor of foreign-born labor. As Boston’s mayor, Walsh responded to President Trump’s threat to defund sanctuary cities like his with this brazen retort, defying immigration law: “If people [illegal immigrants] want to live here, they’ll live here. They can use my office. They can use any office in this building.” Walsh also pledged to support and expand the Mayor’s Office of New Bostonians [illegal immigrants] to increase access to City Hall services. As a state representative, Walsh voted “yes” on instate tuition for illegal aliens.

Through several administrations, labor secretaries have been prominent mouthpieces for illegal immigration expansion. In 2001, George W. Bush appointed Elaine Chao, married to Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky U.S. senator known for his immigration advocacy. Hilda Solis followed Chao. A California U.S. representative, Solis, 100 percent of the time, cast votes that would either expand immigration or compromise enforcement. After leaving the Cabinet, Solis became Los Angeles County supervisor chair, and unsurprisingly her immigration advocacy continued. After Chao and Solis departed, other immigration advocates followed: Thomas Perez, Alexander Acosta and Eugene Scalia.

We have to go way back to the Carter administration to find a labor secretary, Ray Marshall, who spoke the truth about immigration. In an interview about the H-1B visa, Marshall called it “One of the best con jobs ever done on the American public and political systems.” Unfortunately, Marshall only got around to telling it like it is decades after his appointment ended.

Returning to Walsh, the danger is that he’s wrong on his facts and is promoting a goal that will further undermine U.S. workers – more foreign-born labor. To keep voters’ eyes off the ball, the government doesn’t issue reports on the total number of temporary guest workers admitted each year. The aggregate, however, can be estimated through available data.

The U.S. has an abundance of immigrant labor, some on employment visas, and others who have entered either legally or illegally. Analysts estimate that about 1 million guest workers are in the economy, and each year about 1 million lawful permanent residents will receive lifetime-valid employment authorization. Roughly half of the guest workers are considered white-collar, including tech workers, accountants and bankers.

Included among the visas that facilitate international white-collar employment are H-1Bs, L-1s, J-1s, Optional Practical Training (OPT) and O-1s. The H-2A and the H-2B visas open up blue-collar jobs in agriculture, construction, forestry, leisure and hotel services for foreign nationals. Not accounted for in this broad overview is the ultimate effect that 2.1 million illegal immigrant border crossers will have on employment. Many have already received parole, an immigration status Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas improperly applied, but which nevertheless includes employment approval.

The very high level of immigrant labor is not only hurtful to existing employment-age Americans, but also to the 4 million who turn 18 every year, and begin to look for permanent jobs or part-time positions to supplement family incomes or to save for college education. The U.S. doesn’t need to import labor to serve cocktails or to pour cement. A responsible labor secretary would protect Americans’ labor interests and not send out a clarion call for more immigrants to compete with U.S. workers. A pro-America labor secretary would promote mandatory e-Verify and demand strict internal job site enforcement.

Walsh is not that hoped for, but ever-elusive labor secretary. He’s just another immigration shill in an administration that, from top to bottom, is committed to undoing the sovereign American nation through open borders and imported labor.

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Joe Guzzardi is a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist who writes about immigration and related social issues. Joe joined Progressives for Immigration Reform in 2018 as an analyst after a ten-year career directing media relations for Californians for Population Stabilization, where he also was a Senior Writing Fellow. A native Californian, Joe now lives in Pennsylvania. Contact him at jguzzardi@pfirdc.org.

Secretary Walsh Confused About Facts

Althea’s Accomplishments Transcend Serena’s

By Joe Guzzardi

Althea Gibson represents to black professional tennis players what Jackie Robinson is to American blacks in Major League Baseball. Gibson, a 1950s era player, pioneered the way for Arthur Ashe, Zina Garrison and the Williams sisters, Venus and Serena. The difference between Gibson and Robinson is that most Americans instantly recognize Jackie’s name, while only a handful of septuagenarians who followed tennis decades ago remember Gibson. In 1950, Gibson broke the tennis color barrier when she became the first black to play in New York’s national tennis championship, now called the U.S. Open.

Gibson’s family migrated from South Carolina to Harlem in 1929. For Althea to become the world’s №1 ranked women’s tennis player 20 years later seemed improbable, but turned into reality.

In her early years, Gibson, a lanky six-footer, passed her time fighting with street gangs and shoplifting. Her father, a garage worker, wanted Althea to become a professional boxer. But Althea took to basketball and ping-pong. After she won the city’s paddle tennis championship at age 10, a Police Athletic League supervisor bought her two used tennis racquets. From that moment on, Gibson’s tennis career, although still limited to the black circuit, took off. Althea joined the Cosmopolitan Club, a local black tennis club where the most prosperous Harlem residents played. Gibson soon beat all comers. The impressed club members sent Althea on the nationwide, all-black American Tennis Association tour.

By 1947, at age 20, Gibson won her first ATA title and went on to win 10 national championships, a still-standing record. By the end of the 1950s, Althea had collected 11 Grand Slam titles, including multiple championships at Wimbledon, the U.S. Open and the French Open, where, in 1956, she won titles in singles and doubles. After winning the 1957 Wimbledon title, New York City honored Gibson with a Broadway ticker-tape parade, an event normally reserved for international dignitaries and World Series winners.

After Gibson retired from tennis, she launched into golf, and in 1964 became the first black woman to join the Ladies Professional Golf Association. Gibson played 171 events between 1963 and 1977, but never won a title. Although she was one of the LPGA’s top 50 money winners for five years, over the course of her golf career, she earned a meager $19,250.25. But, as she did in tennis, Gibson opened doors for black female golfers like Shasta Averyhardt, Sadena Parks, Mariah Stackhouse, Cheyenne Woods and Ginger Howard. When she learned about Gibson’s groundbreaking LPGA involvement, Howard said that “breaking those barriers” (golf and tennis were played almost exclusively by wealthy whites) was “a huge step.”

Had Gibson played in today’s era alongside Williams, she would have earned vast wealth and Hollywood-like fame. Forbes placed Williams’ net worth at $260 million, and Serena, who has more than a dozen corporate partners, is even more successful off the court where she’s grossed more than $340 million. Today, Williams’ primary focus is Serena Ventures which has $111 million invested in 60 seed companies.

Gibson, on the other hand, was born poor and lived in poverty most of her life. Before she died in near-bankruptcy in 2003, her finances were so dire that fellow champion Billie Jean King helped her pay off her debts. During Gibson’s tennis heyday, prize money was not awarded, and she had no corporate endorsements. After her playing days ended, Gibson struggled to make ends meet by touring with the Harlem Globetrotters, representing a national baking company and giving tennis lessons.

But Gibson is finally getting her due. In 2019, a statue honoring her was unveiled outside Arthur Ashe Stadium. In Harlem, a street has been renamed Althea Gibson Way, and the U.S. Mint may soon produce a 25-cent piece with Gibson’s image. Remembering Althea, Billie Jean said that she “always felt connected to her and thankful and grateful for what she’s done for people of color and me.”

Joe Guzzardi is a Society for American Baseball Research and Internet Baseball Writers Association member. Contact him at guzzjoe@yahoo.com.

Labor Day and the Vanishing American Worker

by Joe Guzzardi

Unemployed individuals, especially during sustained jobless periods, suffer from stress that is often so intense that mental anxiety ultimately affects their physical well-being. Losing the self-identity and confidence that comes from having steady employment and regular income creates an enormous physical and mental challenge. The physical setbacks most likely to occur after job loss are headaches, backaches, heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes. Since the unemployed no longer have work-related health care coverage, desperately needed treatment goes wanting, and physical disorders may worsen.

With tens of millions of Americans jobless and without health benefits in their underemployed status, the nation is experiencing an accelerating health crisis. Yet for decades, the federal government has persisted in issuing employment-based visas to foreign-born nationals. To be completely clear, a visa is synonymous with a job – a job that an American or legally present immigrant will not receive, because of the ready availability of cheap, imported labor.

The State Department issues so many categories of work visas that the exact total can be a mystery even to the most well-informed. Including qualifying family members of the primary visa recipient, the total is roughly 35. Whatever the Bureau of Labor Statistics identifies as an occupation category, a visa is most likely available to a foreign national to take the job.

The donor class persistently lobbies Congress, claiming acute worker shortages, and demands more foreign employees when domestic labor is plentiful. Even visas that expressly exclude work permission, the B-1 temporary business visitor, have been used to displace Americans. Despite the potential availability of able-bodied U.S. workers, Congress often increases existing visa caps. The H-2B for domestic nonagricultural workers is an example.

Daniel Costa, the Economic Policy Institute’s Director of Immigration Law and Policy Research, analyzed recent H-2B data and found that although the visa has an annual 66,000 cap, Congress and the White House have supplemented the total during the past few years. In 2021, 117,000 H-2B workers were present; in 2022, however, the program will increase to more than 150,000, a record high. The H-2B program has indirectly encouraged employers in the main hiring categories in which the visa is used – landscaping, construction, forestry, food processing, restaurants and hospitality – to engage in unscrupulous practices. Department of Labor statistics that Costa studied showed that between 2000 and 2021, employers stole $1.8 billion from U.S. and foreign-born workers.

Wage theft in the H-2B program is a grave concern. The Government and Accountability Office, after analyzing ten diverse cases, found thatdifferent industries with employees in 29 states failed to pay promised wages, overtime and charged H-2B workers exorbitant fees. The GAO also uncovered employers and recruiters who submitted fraudulent documentation to government officials, evaded IRS payroll taxes and laundered money.

The total count of potential workers climbs daily. The anticipated 2.1 million illegal aliens that will cross the Southwest Border will eventually, for the most part, either be granted asylum or parole; both come with work authorization. Sadly, few in Congress and no one in the White House cares when a foreign-born worker displaces an American. Since 2000, the total foreign-born population, a record 47 million, has grown by 50 percent; it’s doubled since 1990, tripled since 1980, and quintupled since 1970 – all workers or potential workers.

The U.S. doesn’t need 150,000 H-2B visas, the total Costa anticipates, to mow lawns, serve meals or hang dry wall. Americans can and will do those jobs, assuming a living wage. In his earlier reports, Costa wrote that “no labor shortages [exist] at the national level in the top H-2B occupations.” But the federal government and its Chamber of Commerce toadies are indifferent to displaced U.S. workers’ plights, their families or recently graduated job-seeking college students.

American workers on Labor Day 2022 struggle with a labor market stacked against them. In theory, a solution could be implemented – immediately reduce, with an eye toward eliminating, unnecessary employment visas. Sadly, though, the White House has proven time and again that it refuses to put Americans first.

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Joe Guzzardi is a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist who writes about immigration and related social issues. Joe joined Progressives for Immigration Reform in 2018 as an analyst after a ten-year career directing media relations for Californians for Population Stabilization, where he also was a Senior Writing Fellow. A native Californian, Joe now lives in Pennsylvania. Contact him at jguzzardi@pfirdc.org.