Report: Nativism Is Anti-American Workers

Today America’s Voice Online released a report titled “The Anti-Worker Truth about the Anti-Immigrant Lobby” and held a teleconference with experts regarding the recent anti-immigrant exploitation of economic woes to scapegoat immigrant workers.

The report analyzes the voting records of 87 politicians in the 110th Congress on labor issues who received an A from the anti-immigrant hate-group FAIR. It proves in clear terms that politicians who blame immigrants for unemployment do not hold the best interest for American workers.

Don’t be swayed by the “Coalition for the Future American Worker,” which is run by FAIR but made up of the most virulent anti-immigrant forces whose primarily concern is to get rid of immigrants rather than promote economic recovery for all Americans.

Of the 87 politicians graded ‘A’ by FAIR, 68% voted against increasing the minimum wage, 83% voted against extending unemployment compensation, 93% voted against equal pay for women, 94% voted against the Employee Free Choice Act, 82% voted against providing parental leave for federal employees.

Clearly, for the anti-immigrant industrial complex, unemployment is only the latest excuse to scapegoat immigrants. They are more interested in getting rid of immigrant workers than improving the economic situation of all Americans.

All the Republican Senators who recently sent a letter to Janet Napolitano attacking her endorsement of immigration reform as a positive economic move actually voted against increasing minimum wage and received an F from the labor movement.

Representative Lamar Smith, who thinks that deporting 8 billion unauthorized migrants would create 8 billion jobs even though that is not how the economy works, received an F from all the labor unions on the survey including the AFL-CIO and SEIU.

Eliseo Medina, the Executive Vice President of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), stated on the tele-conference for the report that if the anti-immigrant politicians and lobby groups think that firing a migrant worker in California somehow creates a job for an American worker elsewhere, then they are clearly “living in different alternate universe.”

The link between immigrant workers and unemployment does not hold up under scrutiny. The labor movement actually stands with immigrant workers in calling for comprehensive immigration solutions. The economic woes of American workers do not provide a reason against immigration reform but a reason for it as seen by reports from the Immigration Policy Center, CATO Institute, the National Immigration Law Center, and the Pew Hispanic Center, that immigrants are not responsible for job losses among Americans and that legalizing migrant workers leads to an upward mobility of the very bottom of the labor force.

(Photo Credit: Brooke Anderson’s photostream)