At a time when more than 13.9 million Americans are out of work and millions more have quit looking, the craven geniuses in Washington, D.C., have a brilliant two-prong solution: import more immigrant workers and block the deportation of illegal aliens already here.

It's a poor economic plan, and not much of a re-election strategy unless Democrats can get those folks registered to vote. But the president and his handmaidens in Congress are pushing ahead.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, the ranking Democrat on the House immigration subcommittee, has introduced the IDEA Act (HR 2161), which would increase the admission of "skilled" workers from abroad. The California congresswoman says she is simply responding to workplace demands by U.S. companies. How capitalistic.

Yet, in many cases, "skilled" only means a college degree, and the United States already has plenty of jobless graduates.

The Center for Immigration Studies reports:

• There are about 10 million Americans with STEM degrees (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) not working in those fields.
• Each year, some 200,000 additional skilled foreign workers are admitted through a variety of existing visa programs.
• The large majority of foreign Ph.D. recipients already remain in the United States under current law.

The numbers suggest that America isn't so much short of skilled workers as it is short of cheap skilled laborers. Note: 200,000 additional "skilled" migrants already enter the country every year without any new laws.

"In examining the details of proposals to increase skilled immigration it's clear that they would lead mainly to the admission of large numbers of unremarkable workers, since those who truly are the 'best and brightest' already have ways of entering or staying in the U.S.," said CIS researcher David North.

And, still, Obama & Co. maintain that U.S. immigration policies "make it difficult for skilled foreigners to work in America."

(Florida's Agency for Workforce Innovation, which reported a net loss of 22,100 jobs in July, said it could not meet Sunshine State News' request for relevant statewide statistics by deadline.)

Doubling down on its seemingly uncharacteristic gambit to serve corporate masters, the Obama administration on Thursday said it was immediately halting the deportation of some 300,000 illegal immigrants.

Beneficiaries will initially include undocumented aliens who attend school, have family in the military or are primarily responsible for other family members’ care.

“This case-by-case approach will enhance public safety,” said Department of Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano. “Immigration judges will be able to more swiftly adjudicate high priority cases, such as those involving convicted felons.”

Here, too, the administration is flouting the facts. And contrary to a PR campaign claiming that immigration enforcement has tightened under his regime, Obama remains bent on loosening border controls.

Recent reports show that up to 60 percent of aliens awaiting removal proceedings flee ("abscond") before their hearing, and that the total number of apprehensions of illegal aliens is less than half what it was five years ago.

The drop in apprehensions by Customs and Border Protection is often explained by improvements in border security. However, this rationale has been challenged by a Rand Corp. study of border metrics.

Arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement have also declined sharply, even as an estimated 12 million to 13 million illegals remain in this country.

Now the administration wants to shoot more holes through a removal and deportation process already dogged by well-documented deficiencies.