LITTLE ROCK – Congressman Tim Griffin (AR-02), a member of the House Committee on the Judiciary, issued the following statement in response to President Obama’s unilateral decision to stop deporting and begin giving work permits to illegal immigrants:
“Circumventing Congress and unilaterally granting amnesty work permits to nearly 1,000,000 illegal immigrants ignores the law and insults the 23.2 million Americans in need of work. This is yet another example of how President Obama’s policies are making our economy worse. Just last September, President Obama addressed this very issue, admitting that he can’t ‘just change the laws unilaterally.’ It is clear today’s decision is all about presidential politics and his reelection.”
The Obama Administration’s policy will apply to people who are currently under 30 years old, who arrived in the country before they turned 16 and have lived here for at least five years.
Unfortunately for younger Americans, today’s announcement further increases the number of job applicants in a demographic that has suffered from disproportionately high levels of unemployment. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 41 percent of the nation’s decline in full-time jobs over the past four years was among Americans under the age of 25 – those younger than 35 years-old account for 65 percent of the decline in full-time unemployment.
