But some say strategy hurts poor blacks in battle over immigration

BY SEAN MUSSENDEN
MEDIA GENERAL NEWS SERVICE Jul 15, 2006

WASHINGTON - As the NAACP gathers for its annual convention this weekend, the nation's oldest civil-rights group is increasingly joining forces with the newest minority power in American politics - Hispanics.

Supporters of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People say working with Hispanics is crucial in maintaining relevance in an era when Hispanics, the fastest-growing minority, outnumber blacks.

But critics of the NAACP say the relationship has hurt the group's core constituency in the ongoing battle over immigration.

Frank Morris, chairman of Choose Black America, a group that favors strict immigration controls, said the NAACP has lost touch with the needs of low-income blacks.

"The leadership has really divorced itself from the African-American grass roots, who are really concerned about the high rates of illegal immigration," he said.

The NAACP has joined with pro-immigration Hispanic groups to lobby for a more orderly, open-door immigration policy.

Economists debate the effect low-skilled, poorly educated illegal immigrants have on the ability of citizens to find jobs. But some studies suggest that blacks - who as a group tend to be poorer and have less formal education than whites - are hurt by the influx of immigrant workers.

Like many Hispanic groups, the NAACP wants an organized immigration system that allows current illegal immigrants to receive documentation and work legally.

Illegal immigrants cannot fight for higher wages, giving employers an incentive to hire them instead of paying more for low-skilled legal blacks, said Hilary Shelton, director of the NAACP's Washington bureau.

Giving illegal immigrants legal standing would raise wages in many low-skilled sectors - such as construction or the service industry - and give employers more of an incentive to hire blacks as well as new arrivals, Shelton said.

Some NAACP watchers see other motives behind the group's support of a less-restrictive immigration policy.

While the nation's Hispanic population has soared, increasing its political clout, the black population has grown much more slowly.

Decades ago, the NAACP was the dominant political force in the civil-rights movement, but the group's influence and membership have dropped, said Robert C. Smith, a political scientist at San Francisco State University.

"In order to advance the civil-rights agenda, they needed to make an alliance with the largest, and fastest-growing minority group in the country, even if they had differences on certain points," said Smith, who has studied the NAACP and black politics extensively.

Said Shelton of the NAACP: "We can't get anything done in Washington without the coalition."

After the 2000 census showed that Hispanics had moved ahead of blacks as the nation's largest minority group, "the media tried very hard to frame the growth as a competition between Latinos and blacks," said Cecilia Mu?oz, vice president for policy for National Council of La Raza, the country's largest Hispanic civil-rights group.

Instead of competition, she said, the two sides have increasingly found common ground on such issues as strong voting-rights protections, anti-discrimination laws, health-care access and equal education funding.

Bruce Gordon, who became NAACP president a year ago, spoke last month to the annual convention of the League of United Latin American Citizens, another Hispanic civil-rights group.

"Having two sides of a minority group with similar goals and a similar agenda means we're a stronger force for change if we work together," Mu?oz said.

But the NAACP's critics question whether those agendas should be identical, at least on the subject of immigration and jobs.

A poll by the Pew Research Center in April found that four out of five blacks said jobs were hard to find in their community. Half the whites gave that response. One of three blacks said immigrants take jobs from American citizens, compared with one of four whites.

The NAACP convention begins today in Washington and ends Thursday.


Sean Mussenden is a national correspondent in Media General's Washington Bureau. E-mail Mussenden at smussenden@mediageneral.com

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