National Review Online
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Wednesday, February 03, 2010

Immigration: Not Right vs. Left, But Up vs. Down [Mark Krikorian]

A new Zogby poll of business executives, small-business owners, and union households finds the same gap between elites and the rank-and-file as among religious denominations and the public at large. While the U.S. Chamber of Commerece, certain industry associations, and the big union federations all want amnesty and increased immigration, the people they claim to speak for disagree. Respondents overwhelmingly preferred attrition through enforcement over legalization; thought there were plenty of Americans to do less-skilled work; said illegal immigration is caused by inadequate enforcement rather than limits on legal immigration; and wanted less overall immigration.

The honorable exception to this disconnect is the National Federation of Independent Business, NFIB, the lobby for small business. Not coincidentally, it's the only such group that asks its members what its position should be on immigration. As a result, the NFIB is on the record opposing amnesty and supporting enforcement legislation.

This headquarters staff-vs.-membership dynamic really hit home at a meeting I attended a few years ago for Fortune 100 firms. I shared a table at lunch with the chairman of one of the nation's largest corporations, who told me neither he nor most of the others gathered there really cared all that much about amnesty and illegal immigration because they paid their blue-collar workers pretty high salaries and had good HR departments. But since Chamber president Tom Donohue (whom I had just been on a panel with) had such passionate opinions about it, they let him do what he wanted.

02/03 09:43 AM

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