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Chuck Schumer: US Has Worker Shortage Because Trump Didn’t Let Illegals Flock Into The Country

By • September 22, 2021 12:33 pm

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York has pointed finger on former President Donald Trump for the country’s current labor shortage saying the former Republican chief executive’s fight against illegal immigration is to blame.

​​Speaking with reporters after the Senate turned down the inclusion of a pathway to citizenship in the budget reconciliation bill, the top Democratic senator noted that one of the reasons behind the ongoing worker shortage in the country is related to “how Trump cut back on immigrants.”

“The American people understand that fixing our broken immigration system is a moral imperative [and] also an economic imperative because immigrants are so important to our economy,” Schumer said.

“Talk about shortage of workers — one of the main reasons is how Trump cut back on immigrants, both documented and undocumented,” the Democratic lawmaker claimed.

 

Schumer earlier noted the Senate parliament’s action not to include a pathway to citizenship for immigrants in the Democrats’ spending bill was “extremely disappointing” to him.

“It saddened me, it frustrated me, it angered me, because so many lives are at stake. But, make no mistake, the fight continues,” Schumer added.

Schumer and other Democrats in Congress had been working closely with the Biden administration to pass progressive immigration reform as part of the president’s $3.5 trillion spending plan.

The plan seeks to provide green cards and a path to citizenship for approximately 8 million immigrants in the country falling under four categories: the so-called “Dreamers,” those with Temporary Protected Status, farm workers, and essential workers.

But the proposal hit a wall after two moderate Democratic senators — Joe Manchin (West Virginia) and Kyrsten Sinema (Arizona) — signaled opposition to the sweeping spending package as Democrats hammer out Biden’s reconciliation bill. 

Joe Biden’s plan also dealt another blow after Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough on Sunday noted that massive immigration reforms could not be considered within the proposed $3.5 trillion spending bill because they would amount to “by any standard a broad, new immigration policy.”

“The reasons that people risk their lives to come to this country – to escape religious and political persecution, famine, war, unspeakable violence and lack of opportunity in their home countries – cannot be measured in federal dollars,” MacDonough said in her ruling, noting the disconnect between the actual impact on the budget. 

“The policy changes of this proposal far outweigh the budgetary impact scored to it and it is not appropriate for inclusion in reconciliation,” MacDonough said.

Schumer tried to tie the country’s labor shortage to Republican efforts to confront illegal immigration, essentially arguing that open borders would lead to jobs being filled — noting that worker shortage problem would immediately be solved if America were to grant citizenship to millions who entered the country illegally.

Meanwhile, critics argued that the $300 unemployment support from the government has led to a significant worker shortage and is slowing an economic rebound from the pandemic as workers refuse to return to work because they are being paid more by the federal government to stay home.

Republican lawmakers introduced earlier this month a proposal to halt the enhanced federal unemployment benefits which, under current law, expires at the end of August to push the labor force back to work, but Democrats, who control both the House and Senate, appeared unwilling to repeal the said benefits.

“Many are helped by this $300 extra, and there is overwhelming support in our caucus to keep it,” Schumer said.

Steeve Strange

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