In the second quarter of 2009, the U.S. Department of Labor reports a sharp increase in unemployment from 8.1 to 8.5 percent. Since the recession officially began in December 2007, 5.1 million jobs have been lost, with almost two-thirds (3.3 million) of the decrease occurring in the past five months. The large job losses cut across major industry sectors.
In this economic environment, you might think that policy makers, who claim to be concerned about the American worker, would call for a freeze in immigration and not actively encourage more job seekers to enter an over-saturated labor market. But business, unions, religious groups, and special ethnic interests have banded together to work for “legalization” (amnesty by another name) of the illegal alien population of 20 million or more, along with calls for more legal immigration, including the expansion of worker visa categories. Indeed, the Wall Street Journal (April 27, 2009, L. Gordon Crovitz column) asserts that “we need an immigration stimulus.” Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, who helped create the housing bubble and the mortgage meltdown, has been brought out of retirement to lobby Congress for amnesty for illegals and increases in legal immigration. It remains for grassroots activists to fight for the interests of the public at large.
New Report Released
On April 14, the Social Contract hosted a conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D. C., where we released Edwin Rubenstein’s new report, “The Earned Income Tax Credit and Illegal Immigration.” The report, included as the main feature of this issue, received national attention. It was posted at over 170 news sites across the country, including many broadcast media homepages. Dr. James Edwards, a Washington-based public policy analyst, also spoke at our press conference. His remarks were later posted at National Review Online. We are grateful for the friends of immigration reform who joined us.
The Summer Issue
A feature article in our next issue will consider the question of global warming over a period of tens of thousands of years. We have additional articles on the question of Peak Oil, as well as the evolution of intelligence. Provocative material!
We thank our readers for their continued support.