Opposing view: Enforcement aids Hispanic Americans

By Roy Beck
8/28/12
USAToday

No American demographic group would benefit more than Hispanic voters by keeping illegal foreign workers from taking U.S. jobs. Only about 5% of illegal workers are in agriculture; most of the rest are competing for jobs in construction, service and manufacturing in the same locales where most unemployed Hispanic citizens are seeking work.

The main enforcement provisions in the proposed GOP platform — mandatory E-Verify and allowing states to help enforce federal immigration laws — are mainstream, even bipartisan, ideas. President Obama and Democratic leaders have often supported bills that would require electronic verification at the workplace to take away the jobs magnet for illegal immigration.

The most common state immigration law is one that requires the use of E-Verify. This is so mainstream that the Supreme Court gave a green light to states requiring every employer to use E-Verify. Not surprisingly, a Pulse Opinion Research poll this year found that Hispanic likely voters overwhelmingly support a mandatory electronic verification system.

Measures to reduce unfair job competition from all over the world are immensely pro-Hispanic American. However, those who would hope to thus gain politically must make the pro-jobs argument clearly and sincerely

Roy Beck is president of NumbersUSA, an organization that supports lower immigration levels. (Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who sponsored immigration language for the Republican platform, declined to provide an opposing view.)

source: Enforcement aids Hispanic Americans