As an organization dedicated to the pursuit of the fundamental human right to a useful, living-wage job and other essential rights, the National Jobs for All Coalition opposes, as totally contrary to our nation’s stated ideals, the Trump Administration’s arbitrary travel ban that is specifically targeted to residents of certain Muslim countries; its cruel deportations of individuals that are tearing families apart; and its outrageous proposal to greatly extend existing barriers between the United States and Mexico, a peaceful, neighboring country. While previous Administrations, both Republican and Democratic, have constructed barriers between the United States and Mexico and engaged in cruel deportations of undocumented immigrants, the Trump proposals differ from these earlier, unjust policies, not only in extent, but in kind. The NJFAC supports a path to citizenship for immigrants. The NJFAC is committed to the achievement of equality for groups traditionally disadvantaged in the workplace, including immigrants.
Since many immigrants have fled poverty, joblessness, civil and other wars, political oppression, natural disasters, violence, dislocation due to U.S. trade policies, United Sates foreign policy and immigration policy should be directed toward preventing or alleviating these conditions—not exacerbating them. Blaming immigrants for the failure of the U.S. economy to provide sufficient decent jobs is a form of scapegoating. According to a report of the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine, the impact of immigrants on jobs and income is not major. The solution lies in the goal advocated by the National Jobs for All Coalition: a government guarantee of living-wage jobs for all who want to work.