President Obama keeps saying that he wants to do something for the 15 million Americans who are out of work. But two obvious solutions he totally ignores are enforcing our immigration laws and cutting immigration.

Currently, about 8 million illegal aliens hold jobs in the U.S., many of them jobs that unemployed Americans would like to have. But the Obama administration has done little to increase immigration law enforcement. And with its recent budget, it proposes to weaken enforcement by cutting funds for Border Patrol agents, border fencing and tracking to determine whether foreigners have overstayed their visas.

At the same time, Obama keeps endorsing amnesty (legal status and the pathway to citizenship for illegals). This will allow them to keep the jobs they have, while inviting more foreigners to enter illegally and compete for our jobs — in hope they too can get amnesty.

And while all of this is going on, we’re still admitting, every month, 125,000 legal immigrants and temporary visa holders of working age. This flow continues unabated with nearly 10 percent of Americans out of work — and many more who have simply given up looking for employment or are working part-time even though they want full-time employment.

So why do our politicians ignore the two obvious solutions to unemployment? The reason is that many see mass immigration either as a way to obtain cheap votes, or as away to obtain cheap labor for the interests that contribute to them. It’s a situation that won’t change until outraged voters make the politicians change.

Robert Peterson

Albert Lea