AJC opinion page today
Federal bill would rob poor, benefit corporations

By CHIP ROGERS

Published on: 06/26/07

Assume Congress was considering a “comprehensive” plan to reduce wages for the poor, increase crime in minority neighborhoods, further diminish already failing public schools, and seriously strain an overburdened health care system.

Surely such a proposal would be dismissed as “un-American.”

(ENLARGE)
State Sen. Chip Rogers authored Georgia’s tough new law on illegal immigration.

Yet this is exactly what the current amnesty/guest worker bill would accomplish.

While multinational corporations brazenly urge Congress to decriminalize the subsidized illegal labor of an estimated 20 million illegal aliens, there has been little public exposure of what would happen to low-income U.S. citizens, particularly minorities.

T. Willard Fair is president of the Urban League of Greater Miami, and in his own words devoted much of his adult life to “helping black men build constructive lives.”

During recent testimony before Congress, Fair asked real-life questions striking at the heart of the proposed amnesty:

“Think about it this way: If there’s a young black man in Liberty City, where I live, who’s good with his hands and wants to become a carpenter, which is more likely to help him achieve that goal — amnesty and more immigration, or enforcement and less immigration?

“Which is more likely to help an ex-convict or recovering addict get hired at an entry-level job and start the climb back to a decent life — amnesty and more immigration, or enforcement and less immigration?

“Which is more likely to persuade a teenager in the inner city to reject the lure of gang life and instead stick with honest employment — amnesty and more immigration, or enforcement and less immigration?”

Norman Matloff is a highly regarded professor and former chairman for the University of California, Davis, Affirmative Action Committee. Influenced by his childhood in predominantly Latino East Los Angeles, Matloff’s professional career has been devoted to helping minorities. He is married to an immigrant. During testimony before Congress, Matloff summarized his lengthy and detailed research into the destructive impact of illegal/legal immigration on minorities: “The adverse impacts are both economic and noneconomic in nature: increased job competition; lowered wages; reduced opportunities for entrepreneurs; reductions in quality of education and housing; increased exposure to disease.”

Monroe Anderson, a well-respected African-American columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, recently penned a column entitled “Immigration Hurts Blacks.” He describes the current Senate amnesty proposal this way: “so rich and rewarding — for the rich. Illegal immigration allows the rich to get cheaper and cheaper goods and services and the black working class and poor to get hustled and trickled-down on.”

A 2006 raid at a chicken processing plant in Stillmore resulted in an employer, Crider Inc., turning to the Georgia employment office for the first time in years. The result cast doubt on the long-standing claim “these are jobs Americans won’t do.”

More than 400 applicants came looking for work. Almost every new Crider employee is African-American. As elites in Washington seek to satisfy their corporate masters, while simultaneously attempting to purchase a new ethnic voting block, faithful public servants such as Fair of the Urban League must pick up the pieces of those left behind.

Perhaps we should all listen to his advice, “The interests of black Americans are clear: No amnesty, no guest workers, enforce the immigration law.”

• State Sen. Chip Rogers is a Republican from Woodstock. CONTACT SENATOR ROGERS here.