Letter To The Editor

Note: As of the date of this posting on the AmericanPatrol.com site the item below was submitted to but had not been published in the publication to which it was addressed.

Re:Job hunt gets harder for African-Americans
USA Today - 12/8/02

Editor:

The list of reasons for the shockingly high level of unemployment among black Americans -- 11 percent -- leaves out one of the most important, namely the enormous influx of immigrants. ("Job hunt gets harder for African-Americans")

The job displacement of blacks in areas of high immigration has been huge. For example, in the Los Angeles janitor strike of 2000, newly organized Hispanics were pleased with starting wages of $6.90 to $7.90 per hour. But in the 1980s, mainly black unionized janitors made $13 an hour (not adjusted for inflation) until union-busting Latinos were brought in to replace them.

The Brookings Institution published a paper a few years back concluding that "immigration has had a marked adverse impact on the economic status of the least skilled U.S. workers."

When it comes to the job market, supply and demand remain the determining force, and the current immigration-fueled oversupply of labor is crushing. Irresponsible immigration policy has created a worse life for Americans working at the bottom, who are least able to bear declining wages and job loss. Virtually open borders and no workplace enforcement are taking food off the tables of our most vulnerable people.

Brenda Walker
Berkeley CA

REFERENCE:
Los Angeles janitors
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2000/apr2000/la-a26.shtml

Brookings quoted by Rep. Lamar Smith
http://www.house.gov/judiciary/106-332.htm

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