Florida businesses join to support immigration "reform" (Laura Wides-Munoz, Laura Reiff)

Laura Wides-Munoz of the Associated Press offers February 23's "State Businesses Build United Front On Immigration Reform":

...During a daylong conference in Clearwater [hosted by Florida TaxWatch, "FTW"], more than 50 [Florida] business leaders agreed on the need for a louder and more unified Florida business voice to pressure politicians in Washington. The need for workers and fear of Homeland Security crackdowns were top issues Thursday....

Victoria Zepp of FTW is quoted, as is Laura Reiff, "a Washington, D.C., lawyer and an immigration expert who attended the meeting."

Wides-Munoz forgot to mention that Laura Foote Reiff is with Greenberg Traurig (bio) and, among her other qualifications was a member of the Board of Governors of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, is a member of the Board of Trustees of the American Immigration Law Foundation and is the co-chair of the Essential Workers Immigration Coalition, a group that has gone as far as cheering on Rep. Chris Cannon (link)

"The anti-immigration forces sought a referendum on immigration policy and they got it," said John Gay, EWIC co-chair. "By a large margin, Republicans rejected nativist policies and endorsed thoughtful reform of our broken immigration laws." ...Congressman Cannon has been one of many targets of anti-immigrant groups seeking to undermine bi-partisan and Administration efforts to bring reason and sense to a chaotic immigration system. "This victory shows that ugly falsities spread by anti-immigrant forces are transparent to the American public," said Laura Reiff, EWIC co-chair. "The average voter is not going to be duped by scare tactics."

And, you can hear her on the "censored AILA tapes" ("tapes that are used to train immigration lawyers on how to exploit the H-1B laws").

And, turning to the press release (PDF) we see a set of ludicrous, parochial complaints, such as this:

"United States immigration officials are sometimes downright rude," said Eileen Forrow, Vice President of Sales at Visit Florida.

Well, boo-hoo. I'm sure a massive amnesty is going to fix that. There are also a couple instances of the "we're running out of workers!" scare tactics, and we also learn that even Tamar Jacoby was apparently invited to the event.

Related:
LULAC, MALDEF, ACLU, business groups fight Texas immigration bills