JD Vance stunned a New York Times reporter by dismantling the argument that illegal immigrants are essential to the American economy.
The senator argued that a simple solution to the immigration crisis would be to employ 7 million American men who have left the workforce, rather than relying on the annual influx of roughly 2 million undocumented immigrants.
Vance says he doesn’t believe the United States needs to rely on cheap immigrant workers and advocated for Donald Trump’s proposal to deport all undocumented people living in the United States illegally.
His argument set social media alight when Times podcast host Lulu García-Navarro was mocked for saying that if illegal immigrants are deported, the housing crisis will worsen and the blue-collar workforce will cease to function.
Some MAGA accounts fawned over the vice presidential candidate for his argument.
Senator JD Vance was praised on social media for rejecting a New York Times journalist who claimed that the United States needs to rely on cheap immigrant construction workers to solve the housing crisis.
“JD Vance leaves NYT reporter Lulu García-Navarro speechless,” wrote one X user.
Another wrote of Vance: ‘Look how he counters this NYT journalist with facts, wit and charisma. It’s amazing to see a political power become a reality before our eyes.’
Vance argues that more Americans would work in jobs like construction if they were paid a living wage, but that big companies don’t want to because they can import cheap labor from Central America through undocumented workers.
García-Navarro said in the podcast interview: “The reason there is a housing crisis is that not enough houses have been built.”
“And that we have 25 million people who shouldn’t be here,” Vance responded, adding, “I think it’s both.”
“But about a third of the construction workforce in this country is Hispanic,” he said. “Of them, a large proportion are undocumented.”
‘So how do you propose to build all the necessary housing we need in this country by eliminating all the people who work in construction?’ she questioned.
‘I think it’s a fair question, because we know that in the 1960s, when we had very low levels of illegal immigration, Americans were not buying or building houses. But, of course, they did. And I’m being sarcastic, of course, for Lulu’s benefit.
“The assumption that because a large number of home builders now use undocumented labor, that that’s the only way to build homes, I think once again betrays a rationale,” he said, but was interrupted.
“The need is much greater,” the NY newspaper insisted. ‘I mean, I’m not defending illegal immigration. I ask him how he would address the domino effect of his proposal to eliminate millions of people working in a critical part of the economy.
Vance pointed to unemployed Americans who could be chosen to work in construction or other non-participating blue-collar jobs because of the wages companies can pay undocumented workers.
“This is one of the really upsetting things that I think illegal immigration does to our society: it leads us to think that we can only build houses with illegal immigrants and that we have 7 million single men, not even women, just men who have completely abandoned the labor market,” said the vice presidential candidate.
‘People say, well, Americans won’t do those jobs. Americans will not do those jobs for sub-table wages, they will not do those jobs for sub-living wages. But people will do those jobs. They will just do those jobs at certain salaries.”
The 4.1 percent unemployment rate does not include those dropping out of labor force participation, who Vance said are the people most likely to do jobs like construction but who feel disenfranchised by the force. American labor.
If a Trump-Vance administration takes the White House next year, the team has said it would work to expel all illegal and undocumented immigrants living in the United States.
Vance says this would help ease the housing crisis because 25 million illegal immigrants would no longer take homes from Americans in need of shelter.
“We can’t have an entire American business community that is giving up American workers and then importing millions of illegal workers,” Vane said. “That’s what we have thanks to Kamala Harris’ border policies.”
“I think it’s one of the biggest drivers of inequality,” he added. ‘It is one of the main reasons why millions of people have left the workforce. Why try to rehire a US citizen in a good job if you can simply import someone from Central America who will work under the table for poverty wages? “It is a disgrace and has led to the evisceration of the American middle class.”