Craig Becker, now of NLRB, admits SEIU represents illegal aliens, opposes "punitive sanctions" against employers

Craig Becker - associate general counsel for the Service Employees International Union - was appointed by Barack Obama to serve on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Congress blocked the appointment (with the help of a couple of Democrats), so Obama responded by making Becker a recess appointment. That means that he'll serve on the board until the end of 2011. The backstory is discussed here.

On the audio available at this or at peekURL.com/vx6516r Becker comments on immigration matters. The audio is from NakedEmperorNews, so approach with some caution [1]. It's also from January 8, 2001 (link).

On the audio, Becker basically admits that representing illegal aliens is one of the core tasks of the SEIU, and he thinks that "punitive sanctions" against employers of illegal aliens isn't effective. From the audio:

"SEIU and other large unions have a very, very progressive position on immigration and immigration reform which, unfortunately, they didn't have a hundred years ago... so, it has a very great effect who we represent and who we're trying to represent on the politics of the labor movement... there's been a recognition that employer sanctions and the effort through punitive sanctions to prevent the hiring of [pause] aliens who don't have proper work papers has had a very deleterious effect, it's had a discriminatory effect, it's had a very harsh effect on a class of people who are here, who are going to remain here, who are going to keep coming here, because of conditions which simply can't be affected through those kind of punitive sanctions."

1. He's admitting that the SEIU represents and reaches out to illegal aliens. It would have been great if he had also admitted the fact that a good portion of the SEIU's income is from wages that were earned illegally.

2. "Punitive sanctions" against employers - especially large employers who would have employed large numbers of illegal alien SEIU workers - are exceedingly rare. It's difficult to draw conclusions when there isn't that much data. For instance, the number of employers who received just warning letters was 417 in 1999. Becker got his wish, because by 2003 George W Bush had reduced that number to three (3).

3. Did he have a plan to reduce the "push factors" that cause people to try to come here illegally? If he did, one might expect him to trumpet that instead of falsely pretending that there's no way to stop or sharply reduce illegal immigration.

4. Based on the quote, Becker will pursue policies that help illegal aliens, illegal alien-profiteering unions like the SEIU, and crooked employers. Those he won't represent are the vast majority of American citizens who aren't in the last two groups.

[1] that site helped in a small way elect Obama by overhyping misleading quotes, which the mainstream media then "debunked".