A landslide is described as a massive movement of material that can happen suddenly or over a period of time. Black Americans have been surviving the landslide of immigrant labor over the last 200 years.

“It is evident, painfully evident to every reflecting mind that the means of living, for colored men, are becoming more and more precarious and limited. Employments and callings, formerly monopolized by us, are so no longer,” said Frederick Douglass in 1853.

Now, due to the policies of the current administration, cities across the nation are feeling the pain points of mass immigration that were once only felt by border towns.

The surge in illegal immigration has added millions of less-educated workers to the U.S. labor market. Most illegal immigrants are economic migrants seeking work, legally or illegally. Most of them are hard workers. The United States doesn’t need them.

Two out of every five Black Americans with a high school degree only do not have a job.

Three out of every five Black Americans with less than a high school degree are jobless. That’s a nonemployment rate twice the level of the Great Depression.

Political leaders calling for more immigration are carrying on the unseemly American tradition of indifference to foundational Americans descended from slaves

Black Americans need sensible immigration policy. Unemployment requests have skyrocketed as we have seen illegal immigrants come from over 95 countries. State and local budgets have dried up since they have overspent to house, feed, and educate illegal immigrants. Black Americans watch these efforts as the homeless and jobless in their own communities continue to struggle. Elected officials who support sanctuary city policies and open borders must be ousted from office. These policies do not meet the interests of Black Americans as profits from mass immigration for developers, corporations, and NGOs are placed above the needs of citizens.

One month after joining NumbersUSA, I went to Chicago to meet with Brian Mullins from the Black American Voters Project. South Shore residents devastated by poverty and perennial failed policies were fighting for resources. A closed school, promised to them to become a water treatment plant, additional housing, or a recreation center, was in the process of being turned into a shelter for illegal immigrants. Mullins stated: “We are not inhumane to people’s plight. But we are looking at the reality we live in and we think it is irresponsible to take a people whose community is already in disarray and place additional people without resources.” Similar scenarios were happening across the country. Here in Boston, the state took over the Melnea Cass Recreational Complex to house migrants.

President Calvin Coolidge signed the Immigration Act of 1924. This act significantly reduced mass immigration to America from 700,000 in 1924 to 294,000 in 1925. After the slowing of the flow of immigrant labor, companies were forced to hire American workers. Many Americans, especially Black Americans were able to move into the middle class. The Immigration Act of 1965 restarted mass immigration (now over one million per year) and ever since we have seen Black economic progress stagnate and decline. We have a prescription for unemployment, sprawl and inflation. We had a 45-year trial period to see that it worked – tight labor laws and decreased immigration have time and time again shown to lead to economic empowerment for Americans.

My maxim to students and community members is all you know is what you have learned, but all you have learned is not all there is to know. I want to ensure that people have all the facts and that they know where to get primary source information about immigration policy. Whether in the 2024 election or at another time in their lives they will have to make decisions about immigration. These policies will affect their communities, their businesses, and their children. Being exposed to different viewpoints about immigration will help them navigate what sensible immigration means to them.

Andre Barnes is the Engagement Director for Historically Black Colleges and Universities for NumbersUSA.

Migrants line up after being detained by U.S. immigration authorities at the U.S. border wall, seen from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, in December. (AP Photo/Christian Chavez)