Joshua Holland of Alternet: "I don't care" about illegal aliens taking stimulus jobs

The latest trend in the illegal immigration-supporting community is to try to attack the month-old Heritage Foundation report (and one from the Center for Immigration Studies) claiming that 300,000 jobs from the stimulus plan will go to illegal aliens. None of them have actually claimed that no jobs will go to illegal aliens; they just try to pretend that they've "debunked" the studies by raising issues with the exact number of jobs.

So it is with Joshua Holland of Alternet [1]. After calling names and raising issues with the 300,000 number, he shows his regard for the American worker. About the possibility that illegal aliens will get jobs under the bill, he says:

Here's the thing: I don't care, and neither should you. Because the whole argument obscures the larger issue. Regardless of the merits of CIS's "estimate," there is no doubt that if we create a bunch of new jobs -- especially in construction -- unauthorized workers will get some of them. After all, they make up about 4-5 percent of the American workforce. And that's fine, because stimulus spending is not just about creating jobs... It's about stimulating demand -- "stimulus" -- by putting dollars into working people's pockets that they can go out and spend in the economy, and a worker's legal status has nothing to do with the goods and services he or she purchases with those dollars.

Every stimulus job that goes to an illegal alien is one that was taken away from a U.S. citizen. Joshua Holland is turning his back on his fellow citizens in order to help foreign citizens who are here illegally. Unemployed U.S. citizen construction workers - including those who are struggling to purchase goods and services - should let all their friends know which side Alternet is on.

Holland then shows a keen lack of self-awareness:

the real agenda of many of the politicians who oppose comprehensive reform [is to] to maintain a population of extraordinarily vulnerable workers rather than creating a process to bring them out of the shadows.

That claim is beyond ludicrous and shows that you can't trust Joshua Holland. Those who support immigration enforcement - such as in order to achieve attrition - want to reduce the numbers of "extraordinarily vulnerable workers" in the U.S. It's those like Holland who have continually supported massive illegal immigration who have enabled the current situation. Holland and Alternet will continue to support massive illegal immigration after "reform", and even if millions of illegal aliens were legalized they'd do their best to help the current situation form anew.

[1] alternet.org/blogs/rights/130950/
stimulus_spin%3A_unauthorized_immigrants_will_get_construction_jobs_

Thu, 03/12/2009 - 09:54 · · Importance: 4