New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) traveled to Latin America last week, suggesting that the world’s migrants have a “right” to jobs in the United States — regardless of the impact on working and middle class Americans struggling to re-enter the workforce. During his trip to Mexico, Ecuador, and Colombia this past weekend, Adams sought to ask would-be illegal aliens not to travel to the sanctuary city of New York City, saying there is “no more room.”
That message has seemingly fallen on deaf ears as migrants traveling through Mexico told the Daily Mail that they are planning to make the journey up to the U.S.-Mexico border and head northeast to New York City.
At the same time, while in Colombia, Adams suggested that the world’s migrants deserve a “right to work” in the U.S. regardless of the impact that mass immigration has on the job prospects and wages of Americans.
“When you look at Colombia they have really shown how to absorb individuals into their societies, and one of the most important ways to do it is to allow people to work,” Adams said:
Nothing is more humane and, nothing is more American than your right to work, and we believe that is a right we should extend. [Emphasis added]
Adams made the suggestion as President Joe Biden has worked tirelessly to funnel millions of newly arrived illegal aliens and legal immigrants into American jobs even as more than 44 million native-born Americans remain on the sidelines of the labor market.
The impact of mass immigration on Americans’ job prospects and wages has been enormous, according to experts.
During congressional testimony last month, Center for Immigration Studies Director of Research Steven Camarota detailed how native-born Americans, especially prime working-age men, have increasingly dropped out of the workforce.
“One of the things immigration is doing is holding down wages, there’s some crowding out … it’s letting us ignore this problem [of non-work],” Camarota said:
If we didn’t have access to all this immigrant labor, employers and the American people … would demand that we try to reinstill the value of work. Raising wages would be one of the most important things to make work more attractive. Immigration lets us not do any of that, including the current flow of massive illegal immigration. [Emphasis added]
Camarota said the nation’s working class is the most impacted by mass immigration. For American men 16 to 64 years old with only a high school degree, the labor force participation rate has dropped from 88 percent in 1960 to just 67 percent in 2023.
Even among prime-age working class American men, 25 to 54 years old, the labor force participation rate has declined from near full employment in 1960, at 96 percent, to just 82 percent this year.
As Breitbart News reported, Biden has driven the foreign-born share of the workforce to its highest level since the data has been tracked. Today, close to 30 million foreign-born residents now hold American jobs.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
