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For every skilled worker added to a city, an additional three or four connected jobs are created, a major economic study has found. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

Op-Ed: Want more American jobs? Reopen America to foreign workers

By Giovanni Peri and Chad Sparber, Los Angeles Times

"In April and in June, President Trump issued orders that slammed shut the doors of the United States to nearly all foreign-born workers until at least the end of the year. He said the purpose was to save American jobs.

But in fact, his misguided orders — barring workers in a wide range of jobs, from computer scientists on H-1B visas to seasonal workers in hotels — will further harm the economy during a deep recession.

On Thursday, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia will hear a set of cases challenging Trump’s legal authority to issue these orders. The court should block his directives and save the American economy from a disastrous policy.

The president’s claim that immigrant workers take American jobs is ignorant of economic realities. Research shows that capital and technology adjust quickly to immigration in ways that prevent the decline of wages. Americans and foreign-born workers generally don’t fight over the same jobs — they work in different types of jobs that complement one another."

Read the full op-ed at the Los Angeles Times website

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