Newly elected congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez jumped for joy when Amazon decided not to build its second headquarters in New York City because of hostility that the company encountered when it was suddenly disclosed that in order to entice the mega-company to the Big Apple, a closed-door deal had been reached that would have given Amazon a three billion dollar tax break.
The unrelated backdrop for this is that it took place even as New York City is gearing up to implement a “congesting pricing” tax that would require drivers who drive their vehicles into midtown Manhattan during business hours to pay a sort of toll.
This will certainly impose a hardship on those who must drive into the heart of New York City, and cab drivers who are unable to pay their bills now will be devastated by this new fee slapped on them by politicians.
However, Amazon, one of the wealthiest corporations in the U.S. if not the world, would have been given a three billion dollar tax break! This takes chutzpah to a new level.
Ocasio-Cortez referred to that deal as a blatant example of “corporate welfare.” She was actually right about this. (Even a broken clock is right every 12 hours.)
On February 18, 2019 Fox News reported, “Bill de Blasio corrects Ocasio-Cortez’s claim about spending Amazon tax break money.”
Even as the laughter was dying down from Ocasio-Cortez’s supposed “reasoning” involving the non-existent “windfall” from the massive tax cut that would not be given to Amazon, New York’s Governor Cuomo was throwing a near temper tantrum, angered and frustrated that the deal had fallen through. Mayor Bill de Blasio, who had been involved with the negotiations and was initially angered by Amazon’s decision, decided to turn political lemons into lemonade by criticizing Amazon for not attempting to work out a compromise.
Cuomo bemoaned the loss of thousands of jobs that will not be coming to New York along with the shiny new second headquarters that Amazon had planned to build in Queens.
Clearly that backroom deal by the Democrat Governor and Democrat Mayor with Amazon would have constituted a blatant example of corporate welfare. However, these sweetheart deals are more often than not precisely how huge corporations that make huge campaign contributions throw their corporate weight around to get breaks when they want to set up shop in a particular city or state.
Certainly the issue of corporate welfare plays well in the public square.
There is, however, another and even more blatant, pernicious, pervasive and devastating form of corporate welfare: the displacement of millions of American workers by foreign workers and the suppression of wages for all workers.
Companies that hire foreign workers to displace American workers do so not because there is a real shortage of qualified Americans. They do so because the only thing “exceptional” about the great majority of foreign workers is that they are willing to work for exceptionally low wages under exceptionally adverse conditions, and here we are talking about not only illegal alien workers but foreign workers who enter the United States with appropriate visas such as the H-1B visa.
This helps to boost corporate profits and the wages of CEOs and other corporate leaders, literally at the expense of hapless American workers.
I addressed this massive betrayal of America and Americans in my articles, “Open Borders Facilitate America’s Race To The Bottom: “Cheap labor” is anything but cheap” and “Corporate America’s War On The Middle Class: H-1B visa program being used to displace Americans.”
An abject lack of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents (there are about 6,000 for the entire country and half aren’t doing immigration law enforcement) guarantees that these important immigration laws go unenforced. This lack of agents is entirely calculated and intentional on the part of the leadership of both political parties.
This was the underlying premise behind my article, “Sanctuary Country – Immigration failures by design.”
Democrats devised the outrageous notion of “Sanctuary Cities” to ostensibly protect “immigrants” from immigration law enforcement authorities, cynically claiming that they are being compassionate. In reality, “Sanctuary Cities Protect Crooked Employers And Human Traffickers: Exploitation of the vulnerable is anything but “compassionate.”
Indeed, “Sanctuary” jurisdictions are actually bastions of immigration anarchy that shield criminal aliens, human traffickers, transnational gangs, crooked immigration lawyers who participate in immigration fraud conspiracies and unscrupulous employers.
Among the biggest losers, in addition to the victims of the crimes perpetrated by criminal aliens, are American and lawful immigrant workers who lose their jobs to illegal alien workers who have been encouraged and emboldened to flock to those corrupt jurisdictions, confident that they will have little to fear from ICE agents.
Radical leftist politicians who demand that ICE be disbanded, seek an escalation of the most insidious form of “Corporate Welfare” at the direct expense of American workers and American taxpayers.
Politicians on all levels of government frequently promise that if elected they will “create jobs.”
What is seldom stated by the politicians and particularly political thugs such as Governor Cuomo who outrageously has referred to ICE agents as “thugs” is the need to “liberate jobs.” As you will see, we will see how jobs can be easily liberated, but first let’s consider that jobs are, of course, a big deal. Work is important. Work enables people to support themselves and their families. Work may actually help to define who we are as human beings. Being fired from a job can be extremely traumatic and even negatively impact the health of the person who loses his/her job.
One of the key elements of our nation’s immigration laws is to prevent foreign workers from taking jobs in the United States if they do not have the appropriate visa. In point of fact one of the statues comprehended within the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) is 8 U.S. Code § 1182 that enumerates the categories of aliens who are inadmissible into the United States.
Here is a section of that statute that specifically addresses the issue of protecting the jobs of American workers:
(5) Labor certification and qualifications for certain immigrants
(A) Labor certification
(i) In general Any alien who seeks to enter the United States for the purpose of performing skilled or unskilled labor is inadmissible, unless the Secretary of Labor has determined and certified to the Secretary of State and the Attorney General that—
(I) there are not sufficient workers who are able, willing, qualified (or equally qualified in the case of an alien described in clause (ii)) and available at the time of application for a visa and admission to the United States and at the place where the alien is to perform such skilled or unskilled labor, and
(II) the employment of such alien will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of workers in the United States similarly employed.
This is, in part, why aliens who apply for admission into the United States at a port of entry on temporary visas are questioned as to their financial capacity to pay for their expenses and to provide proof that they are planning to return to their home countries within the time period for which they are admitted into the United States.
Of course aliens who enter the United States illegally are subject to arrest and deportation by virtue of their having violated our immigration laws from the moment that they set foot in the country. However, aliens who seek gainful employment to which they are not entitled are also subject to deportation.
Aliens who violate their visas are often referred to as “visa overstays.” However, most aliens who overstay their visas don’t do so just to do more sightseeing in the United States but likely to work illegally. What is almost never discussed by the media is that aliens who have not overstayed their nonimmigrant (temporary) visas but who violate the terms of their visas renders them subject to arrest and deportation. Aliens who work illegally commit such a violation even if they have no criminal history.
When I was an INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service) agent my colleagues and I would, as a matter of routine, arrest such alien visa status violators if we found them working without authority at a factory or other employment venue.
I mentioned the need to “liberate jobs” earlier in this article. Those factory raids and similar workplace investigations resulted in the liberation of jobs. Removing illegal alien workers from those jobs freed up those jobs for American and lawful immigrant workers and also sent a clear message that any alien who would violate our border, immigration laws and/or their terms of their lawful admission into the United States would face serious consequences.
It was personally satisfying to remove an illegal workforce from a factory and then drive by that same factory later that day or the next day and see a line of job applicants waiting to be interviewed for a job.
Nancy Pelosi has repeatedly said the enforcement our immigration laws created a climate of fear among the members of the immigration communities. Actually, such law enforcement actions created a climate of deterrence.
Politicians such as Andrew Cuomo have said that immigrants need to be protected from immigration law enforcement. In reality, aliens who abide by our laws have nothing to fear. Licensed motorists who drive their vehicles in accordance with motor vehicle laws need no protection from the police. However, drivers under the influence of drugs or alcohol or drive recklessly should not be shielded but arrested by the police. The very same principle must apply to aliens who violate our laws.
The Democratic Party used to support these efforts to protect American workers. However, today’s Democrats are nothing like the traditional ones. The old Democratic Party used to stand behind American workers like my dad, who was a tradesman. Today when Democrats stand behind American workers, those workers better look out!
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EDITORS NOTE: This FrontPage Magazine column with images is republished with permission.
