Report: Firms Push Immigration for Cheap Labor

Tuesday, January 6, 2009 4:06 PM

By: Mike Tighe

Many U.S. corporations use one hand to pull for more immigrants and amnesty for illegal immigrants, while the other hand pushes their own workers out the door, according to a new report that castigates such lobbying efforts.

At the same time, some companies have both hands out for federal taxpayer bailouts, according to the report from the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR).

And the businesses, which also push to allow more foreign guest workers, are not alone in seeking looser immigration laws: During the past three years, more than 500 corporations, trade associations, business groups, labor organizations, government agencies, schools, and nonprofit groups attempted to influence key congressional immigration-related legislation, according to FAIR, a national nonprofit group pressing to decrease immigration.

The study is the first to examine lobbying on immigration policy, and it reveals a wide scope of influence peddling, FAIR said in a news release announcing the results Tuesday.

"This new report demonstrates conclusively that the hallmark of corporate concern about immigration policy has been to increase their own access to cheap foreign labor," FAIR President Dan Stein said. "Equally evident from this lobbying investigation is that the public interest has been almost entirely absent from efforts to influence the direction of U.S. immigration policy.â€