President Trump is now promoting $5-million “gold card” tickets to U.S. citizenship for wealthy foreigners, with no obligation to create good jobs for Americans. Many immigrants, meanwhile, face serious economic hardship and exploitation — despite making enormous contributions to our economy.

The undocumented immigrants Trump wants to deport make up an estimated 4.9 percent of the U.S. workforce. The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not disaggregate data on undocumented workers, but Institute for Policy Studies analysis of BLS dataillustrates that occupations with large undocumented workforces pay far less than the average annual wage. For example, agricultural workers, an estimated 15.1 percent of whom are undocumented, make an average of $37,370 annually, considerably less than the $65,470 average for all U.S. occupations. And because so many undocumented workers live in the shadows, even these figures likely overestimate their actual wages.

Immigrants (documented and undocumented) make up a disproportionately large share of care jobs that are essential........

© CounterPunch