Republican presidential primary candidate Nikki Haley is reviving former President George W. Bush’s so-called “Any Willing Worker” policy that sought to import foreign workers for American jobs at the direction of special interest groups.
During a CNN town hall in Iowa, Haley endorsed allowing special interest groups such as Big Agriculture, the tourism industry, and Big Tech to set legal immigration levels whenever they claim to have a labor shortage.
Already, the U.S. annually admits more than a million legal immigrants on green cards and another million on temporary work visas to take mostly blue-collar American jobs. This historically high level of legal immigration has driven the nation’s foreign-born population to a record 49.5 million.
In practice, Haley’s plans would mimic Bush’s “Any Willing Worker” policy — which vowed to import as many foreign workers as U.S. employers asked for — and massively increase foreign labor market competition against America’s working and middle class.
“Presidents in the past have always said, ‘Set quotas. I’ll take this many this year, I’ll take this many next year.’ Instead, look at what does our economy need,” Haley said:
I came from an agricultural state and a tourism state. Our farmers needed workers. We need to make sure we are focusing on the businesses, that they are not struggling to find workers … when you do it on merit, and that’s how we need to bring people in — based on merit, not just a random quota — then you’re building up your economy, you’re supporting your businesses, you’re making sure that we can all grow together. [Emphasis added]
Dave asked me how we will secure the border. Listen to my plan: pic.twitter.com/zQaXqgofus
— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) January 5, 2024
Also, Haley said she would fast-track naturalized American citizenship for legal immigrants on green cards. Currently, legal immigrants must live in the U.S. on green cards for 10 years before applying for citizenship. Haley said she would turbo-charge the process.
“Our legal immigration system is completely broken … it shouldn’t take someone 10 years to become a citizen and we need to be smart about how we do it,” Haley said.
Likewise, Haley suggested she would back plans to funnel foreign student visa-holders into American jobs — a policy that would increase foreign competition against American graduates hoping to land coveted white-collar jobs, especially those in STEM fields.
“Think about it, we have students that come from overseas, we educate them, and then we send them back home. I mean, that’s lunacy,” Haley said.
On the presidential campaign trail, Haley has routinely said she favors expanding legal immigration levels to help businesses rather than protecting American workers from increased foreign competition that brings along lower wages.
The policy position, though, is widely out of step with Republican voters.
Rasmussen Reports, which tracks Americans’ immigration opinions, finds that 6-in-10 GOP likely voters want to cut legal immigration to the U.S. in at least half, lowering green card admissions to 500,000 or less a year.
According to the survey, more than 4-in-10 likely swing voters want legal immigration to the U.S. slashed by at least half, as well.
Most distinctively, 63 percent of GOP likely voters say it is better for U.S. employers to raise wages and offer better benefits to recruit Americans on the sidelines of the workforce over having the federal government import more foreign workers for hire.
Meanwhile, 77 percent of GOP likely voters say the U.S. has enough talented and qualified people to take American jobs, while fewer than 15 percent say the U.S. ought to increase the number of so-called “high-skilled” legal immigrants.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter here.
