Immigration’s Poison Pill: Big Labor
January 31, 2013, 6:57 p.m. ET
By KIMBERLEY A. STRASSEL
Unions have long used Democratic allies to kill any reform that includes a guest-worker program.
President Obama, in his otherwise lofty immigration speech this week, felt compelled to warn Americans that as “reform becomes more real,” it will be attacked by people determined “to pull this thing apart.” He’d know better than most.
The president was of course referring to Republicans, hoping to reinforce the perception that the GOP is the only obstacle to an immigration solution. This perception is highly convenient for Democrats, since it masks the fact that their party is effectively run by a force that despises comprehensive immigration reform and tanked it in the past: Big Labor.
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“The issue here is instead one of power—via organizing. The labor movement is hemorrhaging members and is now at a crisis stage. Unions see an opportunity to pull in immigrants but have been frustrated in their efforts by undocumented workers fearful of being caught and deported. This would change with a path to citizenship. And it explains why AFL-CIO chief Richard Trumka sat in the front row at President Obama’s speech and gave his full support to the “top priority” of immigration reform: “citizenship.”
http://online.wsj.com/article/potomac_watch.html
Ernst Röhm get’s slapped down.