A member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (USCCR) penned a letter to President Barack Obama on Tuesday, urging the President to consider the effect any executive action granting amnesty to illegal aliens will have on black Americans, a demographic that has fared especially poorly since Obama entered the White House. Commissioner Peter Kirsanow, who sits on the eight-member Federal agency created when Congress passed the Civil Rights Act, told the President an executive act of amnesty isn’t good for Americans generally, and it especially isn’t good for blacks. From Kirsanow’s letter: I write as one member of the eight-member U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and not on behalf of the Commission as a whole. It has been widely reported in the press that you are preparing to issue an executive order that purports to grant legal status and work authorization to millions of illegal immigrants. I write to remind you of the disastrous effect of illegal immigration on the employment of all Americans, but particularly black Americans. Any grant of legal status will serve as a magnet to prospective illegal immigrants and further depress employment opportunities and wages for African-Americans. Given that the labor force participation rate is at an historic low, the unemployment rate is 6.2 percent, and there has been a precipitous decline in household wealth, the timing for such a grant of legal status could not be worse. Kirsanow went on to cite the USCCR’s own data on how illegal immigration has harmed job opportunities and wage levels among black Americans, referencing a 2008 study that found blacks were affected more profoundly by illegal immigration and its economic consequences than was the general population.
Posted on: Thu, 07 Aug 2014 18:34:10 +0000
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