From Seattle writer and consultant Matt Rosenberg...: Sonny Bono Was Right

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Sonny Bono Was Right

September 09, 2004

Great column by Froma Harrop here on illegal immigration. And she takes Bush to task.

Illegal immigration aggravates Americans across the political spectrum, yet Republicans can't get an honest discussion going on an issue that should belong to them. Democrats wink at illegal immigration because it brings new voters into their ranks. Bush and other Republicans are now accepting it as a source of cheap labor.
Many in the so-called liberal media no longer bother to even distinguish between legal and illegal in their coverage of immigration. And President Bush seems to have joined them.

...Matthew Reindl, whose family owns a carpentry shop on Long Island...said most of his employees are legal immigrants "from almost every nationality you can think of." But when it comes to pricing jobs, his legal immigrants can't compete with his rivals' illegal immigrants.

Reindl noted that he provides his workers with good wages, health insurance and workers' comp coverage. His lawbreaking competitors do none of these things. As a result, his labor costs are at least 60 percent higher than theirs.

Michael Cutler was a senior special agent for the Immigration and Naturalization Service....he contends that the blatant flouting of the nation's immigration laws greases the skids for terrorists. For one thing, the presence of so many illegal immigrants has created a brisk business for mail drops, fake documents and other tools designed to fool law enforcement. Terrorists also use these services to cover their tracks.

Cutler sees local governments and employers complicit in the game of fudging identities. Most scandalous is their growing acceptance of identification cards issued by foreign authorities.

As in Seattle.

Like the late Sonny Bono said, the thing about illegal immigrants is that they're...... illegal.