Eberhart: Illegal immigration hurts low-wage minorities

Athens Banner-Herald

Published Sunday, March 14, 2010

As an African American, I’d find it quite refreshing to hear “leaders” in the minority community and editorial writers acknowledge the damage done by illegal immigration. The Americans first and most affected by the crime of illegal immigration are native-born Hispanics and African Americans.

“I don’t believe there are any jobs that Americans won’t take, and that includes agricultural jobs,” says Carol Swain, professor of law at Vanderbilt University and author of “Debating Immigration.” “Illegal immigration hurts low-skilled, low-wage workers of all races, but blacks are harmed the most because they’re disproportionately low-skilled.”

That’s not the concept promoted by the media elite, now in panic mode because President Obama has not pushed for another amnesty for illegal aliens as promised during the campaign. As if with one voice, editorial pages nationwide are promoting the notion that our economy, job market and national morality somehow would be boosted if we legalized the 12 million to 20 million illegal immigrants in this country.

Nonsense.

A new Zogby survey finds that minority voters’ views are somewhat different than advertised by the “amnesty now” media crowd. The poll of likely Hispanic, Asian-American and African-American voters finds that overall, each of these groups prefers enforcement of immigration law and wants illegal immigrants to return home.

As Steven Camarota of the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies notes, “These views are in sharp contrast to the leaders of most ethnic advocacy organizations, who argue for increased immigration and legalization of illegal immigrants.”

The Zogby poll also exploded many of the myths of monolithic Hispanic views on illegal immigration and enforcement.

Most members of minority groups do not feel that illegal immigration is caused by limits on legal immigration, as many ethnic advocacy groups argue; instead, members feel it’s because of a lack of enforcement. Just 20 percent of Hispanics said illegal immigration was caused by not letting in enough legal immigrants; 61 percent said inadequate enforcement of the law was responsible for illegal immigration.

When asked to choose between enforcement that would cause illegal immigrants in this country to go home, or offering them a pathway to citizenship with some conditions, most members of minority groups choose enforcement.

Fifty-two percent of Hispanics support enforcement to encourage illegals to go home; 34 percent support conditional legalization. Fifty-seven percent of Asian Americans support enforcement; 29 percent support conditional legalization. Fifty percent of African Americans support enforcement; 30 percent support conditional legalization.

We are bombarded endlessly with the worn-out and absurd concept that the majority of Americans who demand border security and equal protection under the law – even immigration law – are somehow “anti-immigration.”

We admit more legal immigrants than any nation on the planet. Most people can see we don’t need even more “guest workers.”

No one can envy the job of the open-borders groups who are charged with convincing us that we need amnesty for illegal immigrants while Americans and real immigrants struggle.

Officially, national unemployment sits at 10 percent, and the numbers are even worse for black men, where the unemployment rate is at 17 percent. Each time the federal government conducts raids on employers that employ illegals, formerly shut-out poor Americans frequently fill the job slots.

It’s just not true that undocumented workers are doing the jobs that we won’t do.

Honesty on immigration is at a premium these days. Americans should make a decision on who to believe: the media elite and ethnic-based groups with an agenda, or the voice of the people who demand a fair chance at jobs and the promised nation of law.

• Inger Eberhart of Acworth is a member of the board of advisors of the Dustin Inman Society, which works against unsecured American borders and illegal immigration.

Originally published in the Athens Banner-Herald on Sunday, March 14, 2010

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