Dear Members of Congress,
I cannot
understand why unemployment is so much higher among Black Americans than it is
among White Americans. A recent article in the Washington Post highlights this
problem and I encourage you to both read the article and work towards a
solution -- namely, cutting green card numbers in half as recommended by the
Barbara Jordan Commission.
In his
December 13 column "The overlooked plight of young black males,"
Michael Gerson wrote that African Americans did not benefit from the jobs boom
in the 1990s the way non-blacks did. Barbara Jordan and her bipartisan
commission on immigration reform must have been conscious of this when they
recommended reductions in immigration during the Clinton administration.
The U.S. added an
average of 977,540 permanent immigrant workers per year during the 1990s. These
new workers gave employers an alternative to recruiting black workers.
The
percentage of Blacks in the middle class grew from 22 percent in 1940 to 71
percent in 1970 when immigration averaged only 181,725 per year. These gains
were largely undercut when Congress started quadrupling immigration numbers in
the 1970s.
Congress
should revisit the Jordan Commission recommendations to immediately reduce
immigration and open up opportunities for African Americans.
