TV ADS CALL FOR SLOWING LEGAL IMMIGRATION UNTIL SAN LUIS OBISPO, CALIFORNIA IS WORKING AGAIN

Federal Government Continues Admitting Millions of Legal Immigrants and Temporary Workers To Take Californians’ Jobs Despite High Unemployment    

San Luis Obispo, CA – March 7, 2011 – Californians for Population Stabilization (CAPS) has launched a TV campaign in San Luis Obispo, California calling for lower levels of legal immigration and temporary workers until Californians are 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 levels since the Great Depression. 

The San Luis Obispo unemployment rate is currently 10.3%, while the national unemployment rate is around 9%, not including part-time workers who want full-time jobs. 

Recent studies by the Pew Hispanic Center and Northeastern University indicate that new immigrants are landing jobs while Americans are losing jobs.        

“With over 10% unemployment in San Luis Obispo, there are a lot of people here who would like jobs,” commented CAPS Board Chairman, Marilyn DeYoung.  “If Congressman Kevin McCarthy would call for slowing the flow of legal immigration as well as illegal, we could start getting San Luis 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 as high as 18% in some areas.  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 bringing in foreign workers in sight.    

The TV ad illustrates the lack of attention to legal foreign workers by first presenting the word “illegal”, since illegal immigrants have 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.  Last week, the ads launched in Bakersfield California, where unemployment is over 16%.  The campaign will continue for months throughout various markets in California.

For more information about CAPS or to view the CAPS LEGAL TV commercial, please visit www.CAPSweb.org.

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