Questions for Senator Grassley

Now that Republicans control the U.S. Senate, Iowa’s Senator Grassley controls the Senate’s Judiciary Committee, through which all immigration legislation must pass.

He will be near Des Moines this Saturday, March 7. He will be at the Truro Public Library at 11:30 am, and at the Norwalk Public Safety building, 1100 Chatham Avenue, at 1:30 pm. He says “bring a friend, and bring questions”. I would love to see his answers to this question:

“When your committee holds hearings on immigration laws, will senators hear most from economists about how more legal immigration will help the U.S. economy, or from Undocumented Economists about how immigrants take jobs from citizens and drive down wages?”

By Dave Leach. Spanish translation published in El Enfoque March, 2015. See all articles in this series, with Spanish translations which have been published in El Enfoque, at www.CafeConLecheRepublicans.com/Libertad-Divertido.

(“Undocumented Economists” have no credentials certifying them as experts on the economy. None of them cared enough about understanding the economy to make that their major in college.)

As committee chairman, Grassley decides which bills will be voted on, and he decides which three senators (in a “subcommittee”) will be the first to decide whether the bill should “live” or “die”. He also decides which expert witnesses get to testify before his committee when it holds hearings on new immigration legislation; will he let economists tell senators how more legal immigration will help the U.S. economy? Or will he let Undocumented Economists claim that immigrants take jobs from citizens and drive down wages?

Therefore Iowans have more opportunity than people in most states to heal immigration law, just by talking to our own U.S. Senator. And it is not impossible to talk to him. He comes to many events in Iowa where you can talk to him.

I spoke with him August 8 in Des Moines. I asked him what experts he trusts about the economic impact of more immigration. He answered that people don’t care whether the impact is good or bad; people want to “seal the border” before they start to think about it. He promised to answer my letter if I write to him.

Based on my August 8 conversation, I emailed him January 14, and again a couple of weeks later. I began, “Honorable Senator Grassley, will you let more than one economist testify at future hearings on immigration proposals? I ask because one is all the Committee heard under your predecessor, Democrat Senator Leahy, out of 39 witnesses during your five hearings in 2013 about S744. Only one had a degree in economics: Douglas Holtz-Eakin.

“Drowning him out were several self-proclaimed experts on the economic impact of immigration who had never cared enough about correctly understanding economics to make that their major in college. Among them were Peter Kirsanow, a lawyer pitted against Holtz-Eakin; and at a separate hearing, representing the Center for Immigration Studies, Steven Camarota whose degrees are in Public Policy Analysis and Political Science, and four others whose degrees are in other fields. They are literally Undocumented Economists.

” That seems a lopsided ratio for a bill, part of whose title was ‘economic opportunity’. Will you be willing to reverse that ratio when Republicans take charge?”

Isn’t that a reasonable question? But he still hasn’t answered. I need your help getting him to answer. See www.CafeConLecheRepublicans.com/Libertad-Divertido.

My followup letter I sent today to Senator Grassley, verbatim, showing the email addresses I sent to, is posted at

http://www.cafeconlecherepublicans.com/letter-to-senator-grassley/