Posted on 06/07/2007 7:40:16 AM PDT by 3AngelaD
"The interests of American citizens should trump any obligations to illegal immigrants who have willfully broken the nation’s laws and demanded rights and privileges not guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution."
In the new book Debating Immigration, I criticized the Congressional Black Caucus for its failure to take a leadership role in reforming the nation’s immigration laws. A perusal of the CBC’s Web site and press releases during the 109th Congress revealed that the issue was not listed among its legislative priorities, nor had the organization, traditionally concerned with jobs and education, acknowledged the negative impact that high immigration rates has had and is continuing to have on members’ districts. When the CBC finally addressed the issue in the 110th Congress, its official position placed the organization firmly in favor of amnesty for millions of illegal immigrants and for a guest worker program that would bring in even more immigrants to compete with Blacks and other low-wage, low-skill workers for housing, health care, education, employment opportunities and goods and services.
We need only focus on unemployment to get an idea of how Blacks and other groups are adversely affected by high levels of immigration. Consider that Black unemployment rates are usually double the rate of Whites and are higher than the rates of Hispanics. For example, in April 2007, the national unemployment rate was 4.5 percent. The Black unemployment rate was 8.2 percent, with the rate for Black males at 9.7 percent. The rate for Hispanics was 5.4 percent...
Employed African-Americans include a disproportionate percentage of high school dropouts and graduates who compete directly with legal and illegal immigrants for low-wage, low-skill jobs. Immigrants arriving since 1990 have increased the supply of labor by 25 percent for the kinds of jobs traditionally taken by poorly educated Americans. Using data from 2000-2004, Steven Camarota of the Center for Immigration Studies has found that while immigrant workers constituted 15 percent of the U.S. labor force, they were a whopping 40 percent of workers without high school diplomas. Only 12 percent had greater than a high school diploma.
The greatest competition for low-skill jobs is now occurring among people at the margins of society, a multiracial group that includes poorly educated Blacks, Whites and Hispanics. It is no wonder members of the working-class are the ones most upset about high levels of immigration.
Whether the topic is education, poverty, housing, health care or unemployment, Blacks remain clustered at the bottom of the ladder in a most desperate situation. Therefore, their need for representation in Congress is on-going — the more vigorous, the better. The CBC has not been an effective voice on unemployment and related issues such as immigration...
African-Americans should expect and demand more from the CBC, because its members have chosen to organize as a racial caucus. By doing so, CBC members have placed upon themselves the obligation to represent the interests of the millions of Black constituents who have faithfully and repeatedly sent them to Washington...
Often, these immigrants show open hostility and disdain for African-Americans, the very group whose civil rights movement have and continues to benefit them enormously...
Ummm. I don’t think so. They can’t complain if they get parity. Illegals taking jobs they might will be reserved for a later complaint that whitey is keeping them surpressed.
Don’t forget - even in the Congressional Black Circus, liberalism trumps all else.
The professor does not understand the dynamic here. Illegals are an underclass. Their children will be citizens. The children of the underclass are reliable leftist voters. The CBC and the rest of the left will grow and prosper as this new generation from the underclass starts voting.
For most politicians, power trumps any interest they have in helping their constituents.
And what’s the response from other black “leaders” - Sharpton, Jackson, even the outspoken rappers?
.... crickets ....
They scream like hell when Michael Richards says one word, but when they REALLY ARE being betrayed, silence.
Go figure.
Black caucus reps are generally in heavily black districts and consider themselves invulnerable. My Rep is Lacy Clay. In my e-mail to him, I pointed out that his father chained himself to the bank doors and risked his life for the betterment of his people. Lacy chained himself to-what?, and risked nothing.
The CBC has not on eball among them.
The CBC is interested in political power for themselves. They don’t give a damn for average blacks, other than their votes. They see amnesty and citizenship for 20-30 million illegal aliens as more Democrat votes to ensure their grasp on power no matter what hardship it puts on displaced black American workers. They know that very soon there will be millions more Hispanic Democrats than black Democrats, mostly in their urban districts, so their retention of power will depend on the Hispanic vote - screw their fellow blacks.
Ironically, the CBC will be treating their core constituency, the one that put them in power, just like the Republicans treat their core constituency on the immigration issue.
I particulary didn't understand this, "Illegals taking jobs they might will be reserved for a later complaint..."
Hey, it looks like your keyboard dried out. You’ll have to kee=p= the kids/=p=ets away from it. ;-)
Sharpton and Jackson spoke at one of the I rallies at Union Sq. here in NY. They said ‘It’s the new civil rights issue’.
If we apply the laws as we should, all these illegals will disappear and I believe more opportunity will be available. Do you think the Black Caucus silence is to benefit the blacks? I believe it is to keep them reliant on the government by limiting any opportunity for them to progress. So in essence they are saving the argument for a later date to support any and all programs, but most importantly the vote, to their advantage.
This is good because keeping the CDC's place at the trough means keeping the White leadership of the Democratic Party happy, not protecting the interests of their constituents. The White leadership sees THEIR permanent majority rule brought about by unrestricted immigration.
The CBC will start to get upset when they discover that more Browns in Congress means fewer Blacks in Congress. They won’t understand that until redistricting comes up in 2011 after the next census. Then they will scream. And they will be bought off until 2021, when they will be worse off and will scream louder, but will have less pull. Then they as individuals will be desperately trying to hold on to whatever scrap of power they have, in the hope they reach retirement age before the power vanishes entirely.
My keyboard is toying with me. Sometimes it is working, today, and sometimes it isn-’t. See?| I have decided it is a gremlin, as the dog, a Yorkie, can-’t jump= up= this high.
Your post #9 is poignantly on target. As a white living in MA, I have been perplexed for years that Senator Kennedy has been working tirelessly since 1965 to flood the country with immigrants, legal and illegal, who are in direct competition for jobs with the poorest American citizens. So many of the citizens who need those jobs, who need that first step up onto the ladder into the middle class, are blacks — the very voters that Kennedy and the Democrats rely so heavily upon. Clearly, the Democrats take the black vote for granted, and pay only lip service to black interests.
And so I have asked black acquaintances why blacks are not objecting loudly to our open borders, to the family reunification emphasis in our immigration policy. The reply is always that they are aware of what is happening, but they don’t know what to do about it - no black or Democrat leader has gone near the problem. I tell them that conservatives who want to switch legal immigration to a skills-based criterion, who want to close the borders and shut down jobs for illegals so that they will self-deport, are their best allies. But it seems that most blacks are unwilling to vote for anyone but a Democrat — even when they understand that the Democrats are often their worst enemies.
On many occasions I have called and emailed Senators Kerry and Kennedy and asked why they promote an immigration policy that is so harmful to poor and black American citizens. Neither has ever paid me the courtesy of a reply.
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