Immigration views didn't cost Romney

By Steven A. Camarota on November 9, 2012

USA Today, November 8, 2012

It's silly to think that Mitt Romney's support for immigration enforcement cost him the election. He explicitly called for increased legal immigration, so his position was ambiguous at best. Enforcement remains very popular.

On Election Day, strong pro-enforcement Republican candidates won across the board in heavily Hispanic areas, including Senate candidates Dean Heller in Nevada and Ted Cruz in Texas. Even controversial Sheriff Joe Arpaio won in Arizona.

The election was about the economy. The great untold story of the current downturn is that what little job growth there's been has largely gone to immigrants. Government data show that two-thirds of employment growth since the president took office went to immigrants, legal and illegal.

In fact, for more than a decade, most of the employment growth has been going to immigrants. As immigration has grown, the share of working-age Americans (18 to 65) holding a job has declined — from 76% in 2000 to 69% now. Incomes have also declined over the past decade.

There is good research showing that immigration reduces wages and employment for native-born workers. While there is debate among economists about immigration, it is clear that there is no general labor shortage that justifies allowing 7 million to 8 million illegal workers to remain in the country. It is also difficult to justify bringing in 1.1 million new legal immigrants annually.

Unemployment averages roughly 20% among the young and less-educated who compete with illegal immigrants. There are millions of unemployed Americans in such immigrant-heavy occupations as building cleaning, maintenance, construction and food service. Yet Romney never mentioned that immigration is a jobs issue.

Pro-enforcement Democrats and Republicans in Congress need to stay focused on jobs by passing legislation that requires employers to use E-Verify, which checks workers' legal status. They should also make it easier for local law enforcement to work with immigration authorities, and create a better system to track which temporary visitors overstay their visas.

We also need a long, hard look at whether it makes sense to continue the visa lottery and the chain-migration categories, which bring in extended family members.