Thom Hartman on immigration

I am backing down some from my support of the bipartisan Senate McCain-Kennedy bill. It may permit too many guest workers even if it does not deny them citizenship application rights. Is this another Kennedy mistake? J A Jones provides this Thom Hartmann article which may overstate the case but offers a little history and a compelling progressive case for no guest workers.

Do a little math. The Bureau of Labor Statistics says there are 7.6 million unemployed Americans right now. Another 1.5 million Americans are no longer counted because they've become "long term" or "discouraged" unemployed workers. And although various groups have different ways of measuring it, most agree that at least another five to ten million Americans are either working part-time when they want to work full-time, or are "underemployed," doing jobs below their level of training, education, or experience. That's between eight and twenty million un- and under-employed Americans, many unable to find above-poverty-level work.

At the same time, there are between seven and fifteen million working illegal immigrants diluting our labor pool.

If illegal immigrants could no longer work, unions would flourish, the minimum wage would rise, and oligarchic nations to our south would have to confront and fix their corrupt ways.

There is also the equally compelling case: "Compared with every other country in the world, America does immigration superbly. Do we really want to junk that for the French approach?" - Fareed Zakaria (Link from Kevin Drum.) The French and European approach is the worst of all worlds - a guest worker program which does not provide a path to citizenship.

Tags: immigration, Hartmann