TV Ads Call For Slowing Legal Immigration
SAN FRANCISCO -- Californians for Population Stabilization (CAPS) has launched a TV campaign in the San Francisco/Silicon Valley area calling for lower levels of legal immigration and temporary workers until the state is working again. The ads are launching as the federal government continues to admit more than 1 million immigrants and temporary workers a year to take American jobs despite the country's highest unemployment since the Great Depression.
"Disconnected policies like these make it easy to understand why a record number of politicians just lost their jobs," commented Marilyn DeYoung, CAPS Chairman of the Board. "Washington needs to wake up and put American workers first. That means slowing legal immigration as well as illegal until the country is working again." More legal immigrants reside and settle in California permanently than in any other state. The flow of workers has not stopped since the recession hit. The policy is having a particularly insidious effect in states like California, with millions unable to find a job and unemployment rates topping 12 percent. As a result, California has been forced to borrow $40 million a day from the federal government to pay unemployment benefits. At the same time, the Federal government continues to flood California with legal immigrants and temporary workers with no calls for an end to foreign workers in sight. The TV ad, airing on both broadcast and cable networks, illustrates the lack of attention to legal foreign workers by first presenting the word "illegal," since illegal immigrants has been the primary media focus. The spokesperson then separates the word "legal" out, saying, "But what about these workers; legal foreign workers?" The commercial ends by combining the letters to form the word "ill" to describe California's economy and joblessness, partly attributable to legal and illegal immigration. The campaign was initially launched in the San Francisco area because the region takes in more legal immigrants on a permanent resident basis than all but a handful of metropolitan areas in America. The area is also home to Silicon Valley, long known for its insatiable appetite for cheap labor and temporary foreign workers, regardless of a bountiful supply of Americans eager to fill high tech and other positions. About CAPS CAPS is a nonpartisan, non-profit 501(c)(3) organization founded in 1986 and working to preserve California's future through the stabilization of our state's human population. Since nearly all of California's runaway population growth comes from immigration, CAPS focuses largely on this issue: sponsoring public and media awareness campaigns, working with lawmakers to promote more responsible policies, maintaining a growing network of member-activists, and conducting vital research.
