Weekend Edition

The fat one didn't slobber on the mic Thursday or Friday but I do want to comment on a claim he made earlier in the week. Rush spoke of how the ARRA (American Recovery Reinvestment Act) stimulus will create more than 300,000 construction jobs for illegal immigrants. This is the type of story that can evoke anger from many especially considering how many construction workers who are legal citizens are out of work. Here's some important info. Rush aka "Head Conductor of the Drive By Media Express" intentionally left out. 

The report he based this story on came from two conservative organizations, the CIS (Center for Immigration) and the Heritage Foundation. Two organizations that operate by the unspoken philosophy of, "when you've gotta blame it on something, blame it on the dirty Mexicans who steal OUR jobs." The CIS claims that 300K jobs would go to illegal immigrant based on their economic model that for every $1 billion spent on construction jobs, 19,584 jobs will be created.  CIS states that in the Senate's version of the bill, $104 billion would go to construction projects. Quick math shows you that $104 billion x 19,584 jobs=2.036 million jobs. CIS and the Pew Hispanic Center reported that approximately 15% of all construction workers are illegal immigrants. More quick math, 2.036 million jobs x .15 (Illegals)= 305,400 jobs for illegal immigrants while legal citizens in the construction field are out of work. Sounds like CIS and The Heritage Foundation have a whopper here except it's not accurate.

All together the White House, which if anything there estimates are going to be high, estimates that all together the ARRA will create or save 495,000 construction jobs. 495,000 x .15 (Illegal workers) =74,250 jobs. This isn't great for the out of work legal construction workers but it's definitely not 300K. The real problem isn't the 74,250 or 305,400 figures, it's the E-Verify system and who gets the government contracts for the construction jobs. E-Verify is an electronic verification system operated by Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration used to verify the legal work status of employees. It's a free and voluntary system that has many flaws and inaccuracies. The Senate version of the ARRA bill didn't require that  E-Verify was used but the House version did. The US Chamber of Commerce and the Associated Builders and Contractors are urging the Obama administration to not use the E-Verify system. As a result the Obama administration has pushed back their decision to May 21st. 

The bottom line is there isn't really anyway to estimate how many illegal immigrants will get construction jobs because of the ARRA but it's safe to say it won't be anything close the 300K figure C-cups claimed.