What I Told CBS News Tonight About Arizona Law -- It's About Jobs

By Roy Beck, Updated Saturday, April 24, 2010, 6:56 PM EDT - posted on NumbersUSA

I just came back from taping an interview for the national CBS nightly news regarding the new Arizona immigration-enforcement law.

My main point was that states are going to keep passing laws like these as long as the federal government allows 7 million illegal aliens to continue to hold construction, manufacturing, service and transportation jobs and keep millions of Americans unemployed.

I was asked about all the charges that the new law will create discrimination against people who look foreign.

My response was that the failure to push illegal aliens out of jobs and this country has created huge discrimination against the most vulnerable members of our society, disproportionately against Black Americans, Hispanic Americans and immigrants who are here legally. Laws like the one Arizona just passed will disproportionately help U.S. minorities, including legal immigrants.

These states are in the third year of a jobs depression. Immigration laws should be protecting Americans from being out of work because of foreign workers.

Instead, the federal government has refused to act. And the President of the United States repeatedly takes the side of the illegal aliens (and the companies that hire them) against the interests of unemployed Americans. In response to the Arizona law, Pres. Obama called again for giving 7 million illegal workers permanent work permits.

I told CBS that NumbersUSA is working with state legislators and activist groups across the country to enact laws like the ones passed in Arizona.

Take a look at our map of states passing laws on workplace enforcement. Look here for other state enforcement actions.

Thank Gov. Brewer by sending her a message through the webform on her website - http://azgovernor.gov/Contact.asp

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(8 p.m. Saturday) Well, I got bumped from the CBS report. It wasn't a bad job of reporting, but a viewer would have no idea from the report that immigration laws are related to jobs and protection of American workers.

For the most part, the networks and national print publications continue their taboo on letting the two subjects be connected in the same reports.

The basic storyline is that people insist on immigration enforcement because they don't like the people who are illegal aliens. Thus, laws like Arizona's new one tend to be seen as punitive, when the laws really are compassionate -- compassionate toward all the current victims of illegal immigration.

ROY BECK is Founder & CEO of NumbersUSA

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