Posted on 05/28/2014 4:56:17 AM PDT by Kaslin
Haley Barbour, former governor of Mississippi, former head of the Republican National Committee, now a political fixer and influential voice in GOP circles, says he first became seriously interested in immigration policy after Hurricane Katrina.
Thousands of homes in Mississippi were destroyed, "down to the slab," Barbour said at a recent conference on immigration hosted by National Journal in Washington. Construction workers were overwhelmed; many were homeless themselves. And then, almost out of nowhere, came help.
"We were blessed with a huge influx of Spanish speakers, and I'm sure a lot of them weren't in this country legally," Barbour said. "I don't know where we would be in Mississippi if they had not come."
The "Spanish speakers" were willing to live in terrible conditions while at work building new homes. The experience led Barbour -- who favors raising the number of high-skilled immigrants admitted to the United States -- to realize that "there is also essential lesser-skilled labor that we need."
The National Journal panel reflected much of the discussion about immigration reform. Of eight speakers, Republicans and Democrats, seven favored comprehensive reform along the lines of the Senate "Gang of Eight" bill. That's what passes for balance in Washington today.
The level of agreement was so high that some pronounced the immigration policy debate to be "over." All that is left is for lawmakers to find a political agreement to enact universally accepted principles.
That view, it turned out, was too much even for a former member of the Obama administration's economic team who supports reform. "There are a lot of people who believe ... that immigrant competition has hurt them in the economy," said Jared Bernstein, once an economic adviser to Vice President Joe Biden. "We can't leave those people out of this debate because (the Congressional Budget Office) and lots of other economic analysis, including much of my own, has found otherwise. The policy debate is far from over."
Much of the discussion focused on skilled workers -- immigrants in the so-called H-1B and STEM categories, whose numbers Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and other tech titans would like to increase. It's a given among reformers that the U.S. needs to admit more of them, but Bernstein reminded the panelists that there remains a lot of slack in the American labor market.
"When you look at the skills shortage -- quote -- carefully, what you find is a lot of employers saying, 'I can't find the workers I need,'" Bernstein noted, "and what they're not saying is, 'at the wage I'd like to pay them.'"
It was a remarkable bit of candor in the like-minded group. But the real candor came from Barbour, who was quite open in his belief that the country needs more low-skilled workers to do awful jobs for low wages.
"If you go in a chicken processing plant in Mississippi, there's nobody in there who speaks English," Barbour said. (Poultry is his state's biggest agricultural industry.) "There is a very loud radio hanging from somewhere playing Spanish-language music. And this is hard, dirty ... work."
In fact, Barbour said, even prisoners in Mississippi's work-release program stay away from the chicken plants. "We have never had an inmate make it two days in a chicken processing plant," Barbour said. "They'd rather be in prison, literally, then work in a chicken processing plant."
"I am not very sympathetic to the idea that we're taking these jobs away from Americans," Barbour concluded.
Speaking after Barbour, Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies -- the only participant who opposed reform -- raised a critical objection. Why don't some of the agricultural interests that Barbour mentioned, the ones that need so many low-skill workers, modernize instead? With more mechanization, they'd need far fewer workers.
"I've been to chicken plants, in Delaware, and most of the people there are Americans," Krikorian said. "It's not a horrible, filthy place to work ... much of it is actually automated."
American agriculture could adopt new technology rather than focusing solely on immigrant workers, Krikorian argued. "When you have unending sources of low-skill foreign labor, the incentive to automate is weaker."
The discussion reflected a core reality of the immigration debate. The elites of both political parties support reform. But even so, there are a few voices -- not just Krikorian, but Bernstein, too -- to remind them of the costs involved.
"Those of us who support comprehensive reform," Bernstein cautioned, "if we don't listen more carefully to those on the other side, who believe that immigrant competition hurts them, regardless of what the studies say, we're going to miss the boat and we're not going to get this right."
The "Spanish speakers" were willing to live in terrible conditions while at work building new homes. The experience led Barbour -- who favors raising the number of high-skilled immigrants admitted to the United States -- to realize that "there is also essential lesser-skilled labor that we need."
Yes, third world people are grateful for jobs... Why stop with trades people? Let's bring in a few hundred thousand to compete with our politicians and 'journalists'. Most of 'em will work for very little and be extremely grateful. People from India can write 'news copy' for $12.00 an hour and never complain. Government workers can be replaced too - again folks from India and the Philippines will be joyful to have a chance to earn ten bucks an hour and we won't a have to pay benefits. Is that the 'new' American way? Slavery-lite?
Even people like Haley and his friends can have people competing with them - willing to work for slave wages. How would fat old Haley like that? You can take someone like Haley Barbour out of the Jim Crow south, but it's hard to take Jim Crow thinking out of Haley Barbour types. What a jerk... he might as well be a Democrat. Haley we're NOT going to allow you and your friends to force us to compete with the third world while also being forced to pay for 'job training' for people who have been taught to be dependent.
And then there’s this:
Gov. Barbour’s ‘Disadvantaged’ Relative Masterminded $100 Million Of Post-Katrina FEMA Fraud
http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/gov-barbours-disadvantaged-relative-f
And here I thought the cost of labor was the reason we needed to have all our chickens processed in China. So we’re sending chickens to China for processing.
But now we need illegals to do that work. Because they haven’t already been doing that work for cheap.
Pick one.
Thanks for the ping.
Mr. Barbour makes me sick with his bad imitation of a Southern plantation owner.
Just seems like he’s bound and determined to validate a lot of ugly stereotypes.
But he’s no Republican. Just a Blue Dog Democrat, lookin’ for some more darkies to do the dirty work for him.
Ping to 42
Ay-yup.
Uncle Tom...Tio Tomas...he don't care as long as they fetch that drink for him.
Well in that case there's one other thing: The Chinese can ignore American ambulance chasers.
Had enough Haley too ping
Thanks...
I agree. We cannot go on as we are, but I do believe when the gravy train comes to an end it will be ugly.
We who live near the Mexican Border have been waiting 28 years for the Government to live up to the promises made when they passed the Amnesty Bill. Mr.Barbour and his cohorts are clueless about what happens along the Border. They should all move their families out of their gated communitys to the Mexican Border for 2 years, most of them would see things a little more clearly after experiencing the mess intentionally made by our Government.
What an eye-opener! The most heard language on Main Street? Español. At Ace Hdwe, the greeting was, "Buenas tardes." I must say though, all very polite.
Got a good laugh when I said in español, "I prefer to do business in English." The Haley Barbours of the Olde South simply choose to temporarily ignore that their states could very well be on the way to becoming part of Aztlán. Whateva! Their gated communities might help keep out the red-neck lynch mobs for a while longer.
According to my sources, NC is going to wind up at least 40% Latino, and that is not good news for African-America. As soon as the Latinos infiltrate the Welfare Department, there's gonna be a heap'o'trouble. Right now, the Establishment move is to get the Latinos on the Welfare Grab-a-Goodie Train and eventually move those chicken plants, etc. to Haiti and the Dominican Republic, sticking the good olde USA with Latino AND Black welfare populations.
Maybe a cut in welfare and making prison a little less pleasant could fix this problem?
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