For decades, the media has printed "crops rotting in the fields" articles which scaremonger non-existent food shortages in order to help growers get as much cheap, illegal labor as they want.

Now comes Kim Severson of the New York Times with a new variant of that old trick called "Georgia Law Requiring Proof of Legal Residency Creates Licensing Backlog" [1].

Instead of rotting crops, Severson expresses deep concern about the wait times for professionals like kickboxing instructors to get licensed in Georgia. Not that she cares about the wait times for professionals like kickboxing instructors to get licensed in Georgia: she's just scaremongering in an attempt to reduce support for that state's new anti-illegal immigration law.

Likewise with those linking to her article such as Matt Yglesias of Slate [2] and John Ross of Reason Magazine [3]. For them (especially the last), her article is a two-fer: not only is it designed to enable illegal immigration, but they can also use it to oppose pesky regulations.

Please take a moment and contact @KimSeverson, @JohnKennethRoss, and @MattYglesias to let them know that you know what they're doing.

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[1] From peekURL.com/zd46rqQ

For nurses, hair stylists, kickboxing instructors and even geologists, Georgia’s desire to clamp down on illegal immigration is having an unintended side effect. Things are so jammed at the secretary of state’s office that renewing a state license for some of the 200 professions that require one is taking weeks instead of days. For some brand-new nurses, the wait for a license can stretch into three months. The reason is a new law that went into effect at the beginning of the year. It requires people seeking professional licenses to prove they are in the United States legally. [etc]

[2] From "Georgia Offers Perfect Storm of Bad Licensing Policy and Bad Immigration Policy" ( peekURL.com/zv2MhN3 ):

...ever since anti-immigration activists realized that adding residency checks willy-willy to different things is a political winner, different levels of government have been expanding paper checking procedures. This can end up interacting with other aspects of bureaucratic procedure, like in Georgia where Kim Severson reports that a new rule requiring proof of residency to get an occupational license is creating a red tape traffic jam

[3] From "Georgia Immigration Laws Overwhelm Occupational Licensing Bureaucracy" ( reason dot com/blog/2012/10/09/
unintended-consequences-in-georgia-immig):

New rules that went into effect this year to crack down on illegal immigrants require Georgians to prove they are in the country legally before receiving or renewing occupational licenses. This has resulted in some unexpected difficulties for librarians, massage therapists, geologists, and others who need a government permission slip to work.