Rivals unite on reforming immigration

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Rivals unite on reforming immigration

By Jerry Kammer
COPLEY NEWS SERVICE

April 4, 2006

WASHINGTON – A casual observer of the Senate's discussion of immigration reform easily could think that the liberals and conservatives have switched scripts.

There was Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., liberal lion and longtime champion of minorities and the poor, last week calling himself “the spokesman for the Chamber of Commerce.”

Kennedy's tongue was planted firmly in cheek, to be sure. But his laugh line was a wry acknowledgment that he has teamed up with business interests to promote legislation that would vastly expand the supply of low-wage labor in the American workplace.

And there was Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz, a rock-ribbed conservative and former chairman of the Phoenix Chamber of Commerce, demanding attention be paid to the plight of the American worker. Kyl warned his colleagues that if Kennedy got his way, the next economic downturn would summon the wrath of constituents competing for work with the millions of new immigrants who would be allowed to settle permanently in the United States.

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Immigration scholar Michael Teitelbaum said the coalition “lines up the Wall Street Journal editorial page and right-wing libertarians like the Cato Institute with left-wing liberals like the ACLU. And it brings in ethnic lobby groups, church groups, employer organizations like the National Association of Manufacturers and the National Chamber of Commerce.” Teitelbaum, who served on a federal commission that studied immigration policy in the 1990s, said that over the past two decades “numerically small but well-organized and heavily financed interest groups” have outmaneuvered opponents who have been unable to pass legislation to restrict immigration despite broad support reflected in opinion polls.

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