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Monday, December 17, 2012

A Letter to Congress




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.
Sincerely,
M. Joseph Miller II