DR. CAROL SWAIN: Are Immigrant Workers Replacing FBA?

Added: 2026-06-02

[00:00:01]Dr. Carol Swain, a professor of political science and law at Vanderbilt University and editor of debating immigration.

[00:00:12]>> Well, first of all, immigration is a new topic for me.

[00:00:17]I moved into that area because there were some issues that were not being addressed by the scholars doing research on immigration or by the mainstream politicians. I felt very strongly that African-Americans were being negatively impacted. I kept waiting for the scholars. I kept waiting for the politicians to speak out and nothing was happening. And so eventually, I in 2005, I um had a conference in which I brought together large numbers of people uh from different sides of the spectrum to discuss immigration. And at that time, I sought someone to write a chapter about uh the Black Caucus and um in immigration and there were no takers.

[00:01:02]And so I wrote the chapter and I looked at who represents African-Americans when it comes to the immigration issue. And I concluded that it's certainly not the Black Caucus, that somewhere along the way uh the Black Caucus lost its way or sold out the interests of black people. And they've taken a position that uh you know, that we're going to have this rainbow coalition, that there's no one being harmed. All immigration is good, whether it's legal or illegal. And that's not true. On the immigration issue, there are some Republican members of Congress that are representing the position that I think that's very pro-American, that um that looks after the interests of people that are being hurt. And there are some groups like the Center for Immigration Studies. They've done quite a few studies and then groups like FAIR.

[00:01:52]Uh many of the groups that have taken a restrictionist position, they are immediately uh dismissed. You know, it's not being part of the mainstream, it's being haters, and all sorts of uh you know, words are thrown at people that take a restrictionist position. But, there are people being harmed. It's not a win-win for America. And so, the groups that are actually representing African-Americans may be groups that other people would dismiss as uh racist.

[00:02:22]>> I love Tony Brown.

[00:02:25]>> Carol Swain.

[00:02:27]>> Carol Swain, cuz I was saying Swany Swany, Carol Swain is her name. The Tony Brown Journal, when you talk about good journalism, you know, Tony Brown Journal, um What is that?

[00:02:42]Like it is. What was that noise?

[00:02:47]Was that my phone? I have no idea.

[00:02:49]Oh, it was my phone.

[00:02:52]Um like it is um with Gil Noble. Oh, that's when you had true journalists.

[00:02:59]But, anyway, everything that she has said is absolutely right.

[00:03:07]You know, talking about low-skilled Americans, especially black workers, get hit first.

[00:03:13]Carol Swain has long argued that large flows of low-skilled immigration directly undercut low-skilled native workers, and the data she cite show extremely high unemployment rates for native-born workers without high school diploma, especially amongst black men.

[00:03:33]When you flood the labor market with workers who can be paid less and are easier to exploit, the people you squeeze out first are the poorest Americans who already have the weakest bargaining power. I did a video on this a year ago, and I need to do another one, because that is true.

[00:03:54]Take all of the black American adults, 18 and up, right? 40% of adult black Americans are the low or low-wage workers.

[00:04:08]So, they're the ones being replaced by illegal migrants.

[00:04:15]The system prioritizes cheap labor over citizens' economic security. That is a fact.

[00:04:24]Swain's work and lectures emphasize that employers have powerful incentives to seek out unauthorized or easily replaceable immigrant labor, even though hiring unauthorized workers are are illegal is illegal because enforcement is weak and the profit motive is strong.

[00:04:49]So, is it is illegal to hire undocumented workers, unauthorized, undocumented, illegal, whatever you want to call them.

[00:04:59]Non-citizens, that's illegal.

[00:05:02]But, law enforcement don't crack down on corporations that do that.

[00:05:08]So, the profit margin outweighs the legal ramifications.

[00:05:15]And then they can easily pay a fine, they have lawyers, they're not going to even get a slap on the wrist. It is just go away because they paid off the local politicians to make it go away.

[00:05:26]That means immigration policy is effectively being written in practice by corporations and special interests chasing cheap labor, not by communities bearing the cost in wages, job opportunities, and neighborhood stability.

[00:05:41]Uncontrolled immigration makes upward mobility harder for the poor, driving on her own background of growing up poor, Karlyn Sweeney stresses or Sweeney stresses that Americans on the bottom rung are the ones most likely to be pushed aside when competition for entry-level and low-skilled jobs intensifies due to large-scale immigration.

[00:06:11]Yes.

[00:06:14]H-2A or H-1B1, right? is destroying American blacks agriculture jobs in the deep south. So, I guess that's H-2A. I didn't know that was the name of it, H-2A for agriculture. You're absolutely right.

[00:06:33]You're absolutely right.

[00:06:35]There's there's research, there's data, you know, there's numbers to this.

[00:06:40]Um this Listen, everything that she said in this clip is is true and as you have data to back it up.

[00:06:50]Instead of being a ladder up for native-born poor and working-class Americans, an unrestrained immigration system becomes a ceiling that keeps them stuck because they are constantly underbid in the marketplace.

[00:07:05]Border security and enforcement are basic rule of law issues.

[00:07:10]Karlyn Sweeney has constantly said that serious countries control their borders and that the United States must prioritize enforcement and mandatory registration so that everyone in the country is traceable and accountable under the law. Now, this clip that I played this clip is from what? The late '80s, early the 1990s.

[00:07:33]This is like old This clip is over 20 years.

[00:07:37]So, she was saying this 20 years over 20 years ago and look at where we are today. It's worse. We had an open border under the Biden-Harris administration.

[00:07:50]When government fails to secure the border or enforce existing laws, it sends the message that illegal entry and overstays are tolerated, which erodes respect for the rule of law and undermines trust in the system for everyone.

[00:08:08]Immigration policy should focus on the national interest, not guilt or ideology.

[00:08:15]Ms. K Swalwell's reform proposals calls for a calls for a shifting away from emotion-driven politics and towards a model that favors legal high-skilled immigration that clearly benefits the country economically, while limiting low-skill inflows that hurt most vulnerable citizens.

[00:08:39]She argues that a nation has a moral obligation first to its own citizens, especially its poorest and most marginalized. So, policies that sacrifice their economic security to satisfy elites' moral posturing or cheap labor demands are fundamentally unjust.

[00:09:03]So, no matter what people may think about Trump or say about Trump, that is exactly how he won the election in 2024.

[00:09:13]Because we had an open border, and whether you were a Republican or a Democrat, people were fed up.

[00:09:21]And majority of them were poor people.

[00:09:24]He also eliminated taxes on gratuity and overtime. Who does that directly affect?

[00:09:33]Low-skill workers.

[00:09:36]So, there he's saying, "I'm going to help you keep extra money in your pocket and I'm not going to tax the hell out of you.

[00:09:44]So this is why he won the presidency by landslide.

[00:09:49]This is why the Republicans are going to is going to be a red sweep in the midterms.

[00:09:56]Because the Democrats wanted a open border. The Democrats put non-citizens first and they continue to do that.

[00:10:05]Guys, please hit the like button.

[00:10:08]Thank you.

[00:10:09]>> They know what they're talking about.

[00:10:11]>> [music] >> They know what they're talking about.