By Linda Bentley | DECEMBER 2, 2015
Record green cards issued to migrants from
Muslim-majority nations
Green card recipients are entitled to federal benefits, lifetime residency, work authorization and a direct path to U.S. citizen citizenship
Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala.
WASHINGTON – On Nov. 25, Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Commitee’s Immigration and the National Interest Subcommittee, released a report showing the United States has issued 680,000 green cards to migrants from Muslim majority nations from Fiscal Year 2009 to 2013, with Pakistan, Iraq and Bangladesh as the top receiving countries.
And, according to the report, over the next five years, the United States is expected to issue more green cards to migrants from Muslim majority nations than the population of Washington, D.C. (660,000).
Among the recipients were individuals admitted as refugees, who must apply for adjustment to Lawful Permanent Resident (green card) status within one year of admission.
Refugees have instant access to federal welfare and entitlements as well as local benefits and education services, the costs of which are not offset.
The 680,000 number, published by the Department of Homeland Security, does not include total migration; as it does not include temporary migrants who return home, nor does it include estimates of population changes due to births, deaths or other considerations.
If there is no change to our visa policy, we can expect to issue green cards to another 680,000 more migrants from Muslim majority countries over the next five years.
However, U.S. Census Bureau data indicates the numbers could be even higher with migration from the Middle East being one of the fastest growing categories.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the foreign-born population in the United States is at a record 41.3 million and one quarter of the U.S. population is now either foreign born or has foreign-born parents.
And, unless Congress passes legislation to reduce green card allotments, the Census Bureau projects the percentage of the population born outside the country will soon pass the highest percentage ever recorded and continue rising to new all-time records never-before witnessed.
The Census Bureau also projects, if no changes are made by Congress, for each coming year the total number of immigrants will increase, the annual rate of immigration will increase and the foreign-born share of the population will increase.
Pew polling data, across all party lines, shows 83 percent of the public opposes this baseline and wants the level of immigration either frozen or reduced.
Americans of all backgrounds, by a near 10-1 margin, also believe companies with positions to fill should increase wages rather than import new lower-wage workers from overseas.
In 1970, fewer than one in 21 U.S. residents were foreign born. Today, that number is close to one in seven and rising.
According to Sessions, this enormous growth in the foreign labor supply, which is driven by green cards, has held down wages, which are lower now than they were in 1973.
Sessions also pointed out, “Following the numerically-smaller immigration wave from 1880 through 1920, Congress reduced immigration for the next half-century. This migratory pause helped usher in a period of rapid wage growth for both America’s immigrant and U.S.-born workers who were able to rise together into an expanding middle class.”
Visa changes enacted in 1965 produced a record wave of new immigration.
Unless Congress acts, this country is now in the process of adding another five-decade, record-breaking immigration wave on top of the last five-decade wave, producing a century of continuous record-breaking immigration.
Pew research projects this next wave of immigration, consisting of new immigrant arrivals and their future children, will add another 103 million to the U.S. population by 2065, or the population equivalent to 25 cities the size of Los Angeles.
Green card recipients are entitled to federal benefits, lifetime residency, work authorization and a direct path to U.S. citizen citizenship.
In conclusion, Sessions stated, “To curb this extreme level of future immigration growth, as a supermajority of voters wish, will require Congress to take up and pass a bill to reduce the number of visas issued on autopilot each and every year.”
