Today\’s quote comes to us not from one person, but from nine of them.
First the quote (which comes from a letter they sent to Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah); then the source:
“We,the undersigned members of the Black Leadership Forum, write to urgeyou to postpone introduction of your employer sanctions repeallegislation until we have had an opportunity to report to you what webelieve to be the devastating impact the repeal would have on theeconomic condiction of un- and semi-skilled workers-adisproportionate number of whom are African American and Hispanic…
“Americadoes not have a labor shortage. With roughly 7 million peopleunemployed, and double that number discouraged from seeking work, theremoval of employer sanctions threatens to add additional U.S.workers to the rolls of the unemployed.
“Additionally,it would add competition for scarce jobs and drive down wages.Moreover, the repeal of employer sanctions (against hiring illegals)will inevitably add to our social problems and place an unfair burdenon the poor in the cities in which most new immigrants cluster -cities which are already suffering housing shortages and insufficienthuman needs.”
Interesting opinion. And a very familiar one, since, as any regular reader of the blog knows, I\’ve been writing about the effect of illegal immigration on minority jobs for years.
But who said it? And when was it said — given that the current number of unemployed, even with job participation at a 36 year low, is much higher today (8.7 million: and if you add in the people who have just plain given up looking, the number would be millions more)?
The answer: it was a group of nine Black and Latino leaders who, understandably, were as worried as they could be about the effect of illegal aliens on Black and legal Latino employment.
With a major tip of my hat (if I ever decide to wear one) to Paul Bedard of the Washington Examiner, here are their names:
-Ms. Coretta Scott King: Vice President, Black Leadership Forum, President & CEO, Martin Luther King Jr. Center
-Mr. Jack Otero: President, Labor Council for Latin American Advancement;
-Honorable Walter E. Fauntroy: Convenor, African American Action Alert Communications Network;
-Honorable Parren J. Mitchell: President, Minority Business Legal Defense & Education Fund, Inc.;
-Mr. William Lucy: President, Coalition of Black Trade Unionists;
-Mr. Norman Hill: President, A. Philip Randolph Institute;
– Dr. Ramona Edelin: President National Urban Coalition;
-Honorable Richard G. Hatcher: President, R. Gordon Hatcher Associates;
-Ms. Daisy M. Wood: President, National Pan-Hellenic Council
That\’s quite an impressive lineup, wouldn\’t you say?
I award Quote Of The Day honors to all nine – three of them (Ms. King, Mr. Mitchell and Ms. Wood) posthumously – for understanding, all those years ago, what the implications of large-scale illegal immigration would be: knowledge that some so-called minority “leaders” of today either do not know…or, much worse, do know but have been persuaded in one way or another not to talk about.
Do you find as much of a stench in their silence as I do?
