Jason LeVecke Commentary on Immigration Reform ImmigrationWorks USA DC Summit, June 15, 2009

Transcription

1 Jasn LeVecke Cmmentary n Immigratin Refrm ImmigratinWrks USA DC Summit, June 15, 2009 Gd Afternn, my name is Jasn LeVecke, I am the CEO f LeVecke & Cmpany, which is headquartered in Phenix, Arizna with rughly 130 franchise restaurants and 2500 emplyees acrss 6 States. My Grandparents n bth sides f the family all came frm humble beginnings and went n t be very successful entrepreneurs and families all living the American dream. The brand I am a part f, Carl s Jr. Restaurants was funded in 1941 by a man with nly a 7 th grade educatin, hardly a penny t his name, and a ht dg cart. Tday the brand is ne f the largest burger chains in the wrld. Outside f 5 years in the United States Marine Crps, I ve spent my career in the restaurant business. My family and I started ur business just 7 years ag with just tw restaurants in Arizna. We knew the Arizna market well, I was brn and raised in Arizna, and it was a wnderful place d business and raise a family. That is why it came t us as such a surprise that Arizna wuld t smething s anti businesses and in my view anti family, especially smething s cntradictry t ur heritage and histry as a State. After all, there are thse f us that are prud f the culture f the suthwest. Tday, after having passed the wrst series f anti immigrant, and nw the wrst emplyer sanctins law in the cuntry, Arizna is in real truble. First let s take a lk at Arizna s State Budget. Just ne year ag Arizna had a budget surplus and tday we are facing what will amunt t 3 billin in debt. Arizna, in just a year s time has achieved the wrst budget deficit ( 17%) in the natin. Arizna has lst mre jbs this year than all but ne ther State. Ggle is leaving, Heard Chevrlet is clsing, and ther businesses acrss the state are suffering. Retail sales in Maricpa Cunty alne are dwn as much as 14%. Sme have said h it s just the husing crisis r it s the result f high gas prices. But if that were true why is Arizna suffering s much mre than ther states since thse crises are affecting the entire natin? Well a deeper lk might shw yu that it has mre t d with the 36,000+ cnstructin wrkers and their families that have left the state altgether. Nw, Arizna has had gas and husing crises befre and if yu lk back histrically yu will see that generally speaking flks have hunkered dwn, gtten in the unemplyment line and waited it ut. This time, hwever, its different, they are leaving the state because f emplyer sanctins and enfrcement nly plicies. A deeper lk might shw yu that it has smething t d with rund ups and deprtatins that have resulted in 50,000 immigrant deprtatins. Add the self deprted and we have sent ver 100,000 peple packing. Assuming they were making $25,000 a year as an average, that s ver 2.5 billin dllars sent ut f the state. It really shuldn t be any wnder that Arizna s ecnmy is in truble. Accrding t a study ut f UfA undcumented immigrants in Arizna accunt fr ver 29 billin in annual revenue in the state. And Arizna s emplyer sanctins law has actually incentivized instead f disincentivized the undergrund cash ecnmy which is exacerbating the tax revenue shrtfall. It shuldn t be surprising that if the gvernment is ging t be in the business f checking recrds and the punishment fr a mistake is lsing yur business license that small businesses wuld find it safer t perate withut a license and withut recrds.

2 Many legitimate businesses have pted t leave the state altgether as well. It s just nt wrth the risk f lsing yur business license. Nt t mentin that emplyer sanctins with all f its requirements has increased the cst f ding business in Arizna. I ve spent 100 s f thusands n persnnel, implementing a centralized hiring prcess, and audits. Additinally E verify and its lk a likes may nt charge fr their use but that desn t mean they aren t cstly t implement, train, and supervise persnnel n their use. Emplyer sanctins has als expsed legitimate business t extrtin as cmpetitrs and disgruntled emplyees take advantage f the emplyer by calling in annymus charges f illegal hiring r in sme cases the caller is the ne that actually knwingly hired undcumented wrkers fr the very purpse f putting the emplyer ut f business. Businesses that were relcating r adding t their peratins in Arizna have discntinued their plans. Recently ne f ur city Mayr s met with a 100 millin dllar cmpany that was cnsidering relcating ut f Califrnia and was cnsidering three cities, ne in Arizna, anther in Nevada, and the third in Texas. This particular city in Arizna had utperfrmed the ther cities in every categry, in taxatin, crime, educatin, wrkfrce availability. But the mayr had t include a small little ftnte in his presentatin, by the way if yu mve t Arizna yu culd lse yur business license. Well that was all that business needed t hear and chse ne f the ther tw States. Reprtedly even Gvernr Richardsn f New Mexic has stated that Arizna s emplyer sanctins law is helping the ecnmy f his state as it drives wrkers and businesses t his State. Altgether this adds up t Arizna dipping int negative grwth. Arizna s energy prviders, have said, they dn t need t wait fr a study frm ne f ur Universities n the impact f emplyer sanctins. They can see that based n the levels f new sign ups and discnnects, Arizna will experience negative grwth smetime next year. Arizna hasn t experienced a negative grwth rate since the draft f WWII. Further evidence f Arizna s decline can be seen in industries that are generally recessin prf. As even fast fd and beverage cmpanies are dwn in sales. The shrt stry is, yu can t take ecnmic grwth fr granted. Its wrth remembering that Detrit nce was ne f the fasted grwing cities in America and tday it has been in a depressin fr 10 years and the rest f the cuntry desn t care. N ne is ging t cme t yur rescue. Detrit nw has high levels f unemplyment, hmelessness, crime, taxatin and budget shrtfalls. Much f this is the result f falling int that dwnward spiral f negative grwth. What can we d abut it? First, dn t fall fr the backwards lgic f the anti immigrant prpagandists. We always need t ask the next questin. Remember that a Prfit and Lss Statement is cmprehensive. Yu can t just lk at ne expense line item in the budget and assume that if yu eliminate that line item yu will have eliminated the expense withut affecting revenue. There is n psitive effect frm eliminating yur wrkfrce regardless f their alleged csts anymre than there wuld be a psitive effect if a business decided t shut ff its electricity r eliminate its payrll line in the name f saving mney. The prpnents will als prmise savings in health care, public assistance, crime and educatin csts. Arizna hasn t experienced any savings. These budgets cntinue t escalate regardless f the lss f immigrants. They ll say we must eliminate sanctuary cities plicies. Remember that the first jb f ur plice departments is t keep ur cmmunities safe. If there is suddenly a large percentage f the ppulatin

3 that can n lnger call the plice fr prtectin and withut the fear f being separated frm their families. Criminals will nt be reprted and rganized crime will find large pckets f ur cmmunities where they can perate withut the fear f being reprted. They ll say that yu just want t keep yur cheap r under the table labr. Dn t let them get away with it. Ask each and every time if they have any evidence f smene being paid less then minimum wage r under the table. Mst f the sweeps, raids, and deprtatins f undcumented wrkers shw that they were making unin wages and paying taxes like the rest f us. They ll say Shuldn t there be lcal enfrcement f all f ur natin s laws?. Remember t insist then that if we are ging t have lcal enfrcement f all f ur natin s laws why dn t we have plice fficers check with the IRS, the BATF, the SEC, the FBI, and s n fr every traffic stp. We dn t d that because ne f the beautiful things abut living in the United States f America as ppsed t the ld Sviet Blck is when yu get pulled ver fr speeding yu get a speeding ticket. We dn t want t live in a cuntry where its residents break ut int a deep sweat every time they are pulled ver fr a traffic vilatin. They ll say, Jbs and businesses wn t leave. Let me tell yu its nt NAFTA that s driving business ut f ur cuntry. Micrsft pened peratins in Canada just because ur cuntry desn t allw enugh wrkers int the United States t keep Micrsft staffed and Canada has n limits. We have t get used t the idea that in tday s wrld America n lnger enjys the benefit f being, really the nly place n earth wrth ding business in. Tday America must cmpete with ther natins. Just 30 years ag hardly anyne wuld have dreamed f ding business in China r the Sviet Unin r the Middle East. Tday all f thse markets are pen and largely stable. Eurpe and Latin America are stable and free ecnmies. We n lnger live in an age where n matter hw much we regulate businesses they have nt chice but t put up with it. Tday they n lnger have t. And businesses need labr as much as they need capital. They will tell yu it is entirely apprpriate fr states and lcal gvernment t enfrce natinal immigratin laws. If it was intended that states enfrce natinal immigratin laws then why is it states d nt have the right t issue visas, r allw mre peple in legally, r institute their wn guest wrker prgrams? If we cntinue dwn this path f states and lcal gvernments passing immigratin laws and getting invlved in enfrcement, we will have a patchwrk f different laws acrss this cuntry making it impssible fr multi state emplyers t manage. And with all f theses states develping different means f determinatin fr wh is and wh is nt a legal, yu will have legal US citizens denied emplyment in ne vs. anther because they may have passed the test in their native state but the state they are trying t mve t has a different standard. They will tell yu E verify is a panacea, it s easy. Ask the next questin. Hw d they plan t take the fraud ut f it? Tday if smene has stlen a legitimate identificatin E Verify will accept it. D they plan t phtgraph every legal resident and citizen in America? Will American s allw this? Will they limit hw many jbs yu can get which cnstitute entries int the E Verify database yu can have withut checking with the gvernment. Will yu have t ntify the gvernment every time yu leave ne jb fr anther? Will citizens be at risk f being denied emplyment? Remember it s a 300 millin persn database that changes every day and this is the same gvernment that struggles t get passprts ut n time. Hw d they plan t take the fraud ut f it? Many f the plans f taking the fraud ut f E Verify invlve very dracnian measures that are nt cmpatible with a free sciety.

4 They ll tell yu they are defending ur natin s svereignty. The svereignty they speak f is the svereignty f a mther land. America was built n the ntin that we shuld be mre cncerned fr the svereignty f ur values nt land. Our United States military men and wmen are ne f the nly militaries in the wrld that swears an ath t an idea, t ur values written n paper and NOT t a mtherland, king r emperr. What abut the svereignty f unalienable human (nt citizen) rights (amng these are life, liberty, and the pursuit f happiness) given t ALL f us by ur Creatr and nt t be taken away by the state r man, r what abut n taxatin withut representatin? Frsaking the svereignty f ur principles shuld nt be an ptin when attempting t fix this prblem. Yes, we can fix this prblem but there is a right way and a wrng way t d it. Yu must als speak ludly f tw very imprtant things. First, the very real cntributins f immigrants and, secnd, what the real prblem is. The very real cntributins f Immigrants are: They start paying taxes the day they arrive. Reprtedly it csts smewhere in the area f $ thusand t raise a child befre they start prducing incme and paying taxes. Immigrants pay taxes the day they arrive and we did nt bear the burden f the cst f raising them. T date, undcumented immigrants have paid in rughly 600 billin int ur Scial Security Trust Fund, a benefit they will never receive. We threw tea in a harbr fr less than this. N taxatin withut representatin is an American principle and yet tday we allw urselves t be the beneficiaries f taxatin withut representatin, while denying that these immigrants prvide a net benefit t ur natin. Undcumented immigrants accunt fr 1.8 trillin in prductivity and revenue in the United States. Wuld anyne prpse writing a check fr 1.8 trillin t Mexic and ther Latin American cuntries? Then why wuld we send back this wrkfrce. It is the equivalent f writing a 1.8 trillin dllar check. We must understand the cnnectin between capital and labr. If yu have capital, yu can buy bricks but withut anyne t put them tgether this capital is wrthless, and if yu have labr withut capital there are n bricks s the labr is wrthless. Labr and capital are financial equivalents. Yu can t have ne withut the ther. It desn t matter hw much yu pay tw peple it still isn t enugh bdies t build a building. Immigrants d NOT depress American wages, they keep American jbs here in America. The chice is nt lw wages vs. high wages, it is mre jbs vs. fewer jbs, mre businesses vs. fewer businesses. Yu might als remind the prpnents and the public that there are ther ways that immigrants are cntributing t ur sciety besides financially. There are 35,000 NON citizens in ur armed services and anther 12,000 in the reserves. Histrically immigrants legal and illegal have served with valr. Immigrants get the stakes in a way many American s dn t. They have first hand knwledge f pverty, tyranny, r ppressin. They understand what America prvides and have always been willing t defend this cuntry that they lve. If yu lk deeper yu will find thusands mre that are the legal children f undcumented immigrants and many mre are the secnd generatin f undcumented immigrants. The 1 st death in Iraq was a yung man wh riginally entered this cuntry illegally. Silvestre Herrera was a Medal f Hnr recipient fr having saved his platn and lst his legs in WWII after having entered the Army as an illegal immigrant.

5 S what is the real prblem? Why are there s many illegal immigrants? Why dn t peple just cme legally? Because Cngress has NOT increased the number f LEGAL immigrants allwed int the cuntry in rughly 30 years. The numbers are s lw they are laughable. Yu d think that we d allw in a certain percentage f the ecnmy r a percentage f the native ppulatin r s lng as there was a jb available a business wh needed t fill a jb and unemplyment was lw immigrants wuld be allwed in legally. Well its nne f thse. Immigratin qutas are stagnant numbers that require an act f cngress t change. Fr instance we nly let in 5,000 unskilled wrkers. Nw, in a cuntry f 300 millin peple nt cunting visitrs and turists, des anyne really believe this is enugh t cver all f ur agriculture, cnstructin, and service industry needs? Oh, and I lve this ne, Cngress nly allws in 50 terrrist infrmants per year. S if number 51 is the guy wh happens t knw where Osama Bin Laden is, I hpe he r she can lay lw fr a year. The numbers are grssly insufficient. The system needs t be returned t a market based system that can keep up with the ecnmy. That is hw it was fr mst f the first 200 years f this cuntry and things were just fine. It is nly in the last years that Cngress has gtten verly invlved and mucked it up. Nw the anti immigrant flks will tell yu that we let millins f peple in every year and we are being invaded. First that is blatantly false. Over 85% f the peple we let in legally every year are here n visitr and turist visas. They are cming t see Disneyland r the Grand Canyn and g hme. These visas are nt fr jb seekers. Additinally, if this, has been an invasin, 12 millin ver 20 years in a cuntry f 300 millin peple, it has been the mst prsperus and peaceful invasin in histry. Nt t mentin that the invasin they speak f isn t even pssible. The cuntries mst f ur current immigrants migrate frm, Mexic and Latin America, wuld run ut f peple in the next ten years if their prjectins were true. As a percentage f ur native ppulatin these are the lwest numbers f immigrants cming t ur cuntry in histry. In much f the 17 and 18 hundreds there were mre peple in the Atlantic n their way here than there were natives. All speaking different languages with different cultures. Smehw we made it thrugh the first 200 years just fine! Mst f the numbers r claims frm the ther side cme frm grups like "FAIR" r "Numbers USA". Bth grups were started by Jhn Tantn. Yu can Wikipedia him at He started ut as an extreme envirnmentalist that believes in ppulatin cntrls. He started a Planned Parenthd chapter fr all the wrng reasns and then chaired the Sierra Club's "zer ppulatin grwth" cmmittee. He believes humans are a detriment t the envirnment and as such he believes in frced abrtins, ppulatin cntrls and he was s discuraged that he culdn't achieve his gals as an envirnmentalist that he realized the way t achieve his gal was t becme a "nativist" r jin the racist elements f ur sciety s he jumped n the anti immigratin bandwagn and fund ut it was a much mre successful way f getting humans t turn n each ther and actually argue fr ppulatin cntrls. He has been wildly successful in this effrt. If yu research him further yu will find that many respected rganizatins like the AntiDefamatin League ("ADL") have put ut warnings abut him and his suppsed data r publicatins. With regard t sme f the negative aspects f being a sciety that has many immigrants is that there can be cultural clashes but all legitimate studies shw that immigrants serve in ur military in greater percentages than natives, that they learn english at the same rates as all immigrants thrughut American histry have, and that they cmmit fewer crimes than natives because they want t avid authrities and dn't want t be deprted.

6 The reality is that the status qu is abslutely unacceptable. The bad peple mixed int the immigrant cmmunities are giving them ALL a bad name. I am abslutely against the status qu and am NOT an pen brder advcate. I am fr a legal system that WORKS. If we had already passed immigratin refrm and identified the gd peple in the immigrant cmmunities, it wuld be easier fr plice fficers and ther agencies t identify the bad. There wuld be mre cperatin with authrities if gd peple just trying t feed their families didn't fear they wuld be separated frm their families and deprted if they call authrities just t reprt a crime. Mst f the bad that is described in inner city and/r immigrant cmmunities is mre the result f scialism and nt the fault f immigrants. Immigrants are amng the mst cnservative, family value riented, freedm lving flks in ur sciety. The great crime in my pinin is they can't vte because if they culd we'd have a even better cuntry. The reality is, that the real prblem is that ur gvernment has restricted immigratin s badly in the last years we nw have this prblem. As a percentage f the native brn ppulatin in America we have never let in fewer immigrants than we d tday. In the 17 and 1800's there were times where there were mre peple in the Atlantic and the Pacific, n their way here than there were natives already living here. They all spke different languages and didnt' get alng very well and there were NO limits n the number f them that were allwed. Thank Gd ur family was nt prevented frm cming. I celebrate this heritage and am nt afraid f the fact that accrding t flks like Jhn Tantn's wn numbers we let in arund.33% f ur native ppulatin (1,000,000 / 300,000,000) legally. What many f us are asking fr including myself is t just increase that number t whatever the market needs, nt an arbitrary number decided by smene in an gvernment ivry twer. Just ding the math n the 12 millin undcumented already here, its imprtant t remember we came t that number ver 25 years, which equates t 480,000 undcumented immigrants per year. That is less than.17% f ur ppulatin. Less than 1 percent! It is far easier fr the ther side t scare peple with grss numbers but the reality is getting peple excited abut 12 millin peple ver 20 years in a cuntry f 300 millin is all hype and fear mngering. These ther cuntries that these immigrants are fleeing will run ut f peple befre we ever experience the prblems these grups prclaim. Hey but it sells bks and grws ratings fr radi and televisin prgrams because it appeals t the mst base side f ur human traits, the cnstant desire t believe smene else is at fault fr what's wrng. The reality is that the natinal debt is nw at 547,000 per American husehld and that is frm entitlement prgrams fr and used by Americans and can't be blamed n immigrants. That is nt as pretty a reality t face but even if we kick ut all the immigrants we will still have ur wes. Fr me and fr America's prsperity and fr the freedm f these nble peple, I beg everyne t dig deeper, d the research and read my attached speech which I give regularly next t ther great cnservatives like Grver Nrquist, Art Laffer, Dick Armey, and Jack Kemp. In clsing we shuld celebrate the grwth f ur ecnmy. We live in the greatest cuntry n earth and benefit frm an ecnmy that is the envy f the wrld. Our ecnmy is, r was, grwing s quickly that we wuld END real pverty n ur cntinent, Nrth America, within the next 20 years, the kind f pverty where peple live in cardbard shacks and kids beg n the streets. But instead we are chsing t starve ur ecnmy f the labr it needs and keep the pverty. We can nt allw this t be the path we chse. Since its inceptin, America has

7 benefitted frm its freedm, its natural resurces, and its peple, the bravest f the brave. Think f it, ur grandparents and great grandparents were largely peple that had never been n a bat in their lives. Yet they chse t get n a wden bat with sails and crss the Atlantic Ocean with strangers, headed fr a new and free land. They didn t call ahead fr permissin. They just came! Meanwhile they were being tld by many in their families and cmmunities nt t g, that America was a myth r that the earth was indeed square and they wuld fall ff. Thse that were t afraid t make the jurney were satisfied with the gvernment cheese line, watching their cuntrymen and families starve, and their children suffer frm the disease f the age. I submit that a persn willing t take such great risks fr their families, by crssing a desert by ft r an cean n a raft are Americans thrugh and thrugh. Thse that wuld watch their families suffer while they wade thrugh years f bureaucratic red tape just s they can enter legally dn t sund like risk takers t me, that desn t sund like an entrepreneur, nr des it sund like smene that is willing t risk their lives fr their families and fr freedm. These flks are nt cming t America t seek welfare, they are fleeing sme f the largest scialized welfare cuntries in the wrld. S, when yur legislatrs express cncern fr their plitical careers, tell them, we can nly grw the cause and mvement f freedm with civil, thughtful, cmpassinate, principled leadership. I believe, all f us, must remind urselves every day, even frm the flr f the Legislature, f ver 4,000 men and wmen wh, when faced with the chice f ging frward r backward, certainly had a mment f fear, certainly had a mment f cnsidering self survival at the expense f their platns. I understand pliticians and cmmunity leaders smetimes face the same questins and ften chse self prtectin r survival at the expense f their cmmunity r what they knw t be right. But like thse sldiers, its time fr all f us t chse curage, t face dwn the bullies, t take back ur State and ur Cuntry frm thse that wuld trade liberty in fr security r t prtect their "culture". A culture I m nt sure the funding fathers wuld recgnize. Liberty is the mst precius gift given t us by thse that die fr it every day. Gd bless thse that risk their lives t achieve it by crssing a desert by ft, an cean by raft, r by facing dwn tanks, and may Gd always Bless thse that defend it. The least we can d is shut frm the hilltps, with at least half their curage, and tell the tyrants in ur parties that we will nt stand fr it anymre. We are many and they are few. The American peple have gd hearts and gd sense; they just smetimes have bad leadership. Dn t ask yur leaders t d the right thing demand it.