The recent data- and chart-packed report blaming immigrants for the loss of (U.S. born!) teenage summer jobs leaves one wondering just what planet those elites at the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) reside on.
That said, CIS is to be congratulated for its relentless waste of donor dollars in pursuit of utterly useless information and analysis posing as research that is of virtually no interest to anyone outside its own Beltway staff. For an outfit that loves to keep score of its own “media references” on its website, the coverage of this report must have been—to say the least—disappointing.
Do these people ever leave the Beltway?? Do they have any idea what really goes on in the rest of the country? Do they even know what goes on in “the rest of D.C.”—where hard-working people (including immigrants) clean hotel rooms, wash restaurant dishes, and do every other low-wage job that “U.S. born” teenagers don’t seem to aspire to?
If CIS (and the rest of the anti-immigrant John Tanton Network) were really concerned about the loss of “American” jobs, it would be on the front lines in worker struggles that spread the national landscape—struggles for better wages, safer working conditions, and real benefits. If CIS were really concerned about summer employment for teenagers, it would be busy nationwide developing job programs with employers, guaranteeing slots for those “U.S. born” teens that its staff only writes about from lofty offices. CIS, the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), NumbersUSA and their allies love to conjure up a self-image of working class heroes—an old habit of Beltway elites who don’t know a short hoe from a shovel. It’s a pathetic show.
Summer jobs? Head out to Conesville, Iowa this July where hundreds of H2A workers will be hired to detasssel seed corn and pick melons in the grueling sun, live in a massive warehouse of a building, and make a whopping $10+ per hour doing—in the words of the owner himself—“miserable” work that Americans won’t do. Head out to most any large dairy farm in the Pacific Northwest, California, or Wisconsin to milk cows for the summer. Head out to a restaurant in northern Missouri, where workers don’t get vacations or overtime, and where a 72 hour week is not unheard of. Head down to the tomato fields and orange groves of Florida to take the jobs that human traffickers fill. Head to Georgia to slaughter chickens. Head out to Houston, where construction work is readily available if you’re willing to risk life and limb. Head to downtown D.C. to make clean hotel rooms and make beds for lobbyists and tourists. Head anywhere in the U.S. Jobs—lousy jobs—abound. Take a look, CIS, take a look.
Sitting in an office inside the D.C. Beltway, writing about the plight of “U.S born” teenagers for a report that no one reads—it’s understandable that one would not know what is really happening “out there.” But that’s no excuse for the kind of disingenuous, elitist “work” of CIS and its compatriots whose primary task is to blame immigrants and immigration for every conceivable problem facing this country. What a waste. What a way to “contribute” to the well-being and welfare of the millions of people who struggle daily to feed their families and build their communities.
Maybe CIS staffers will actually get out of the Beltway one of these days. In light of their penchant for research—and their driving and seemingly insatiable hunger for media—they could, for example, head to the Gulf and verify the rumors that immigrants are to blame for the disastrous oil spill. Maybe they could even get that old Louisiana State Senator and political standby, David Duke, to join them for a press event—sure to be well-covered—where they could clean up the shoreline oil with old, white sheets.