Philadelphia activists are urging illegal immigrants who work in the city's restaurants to skip work tomorrow on Valentine's Day to show how crucial they are to their employers, and to protest tough federal legislation targeting illegals and those who hire or help them. As this report in the Philadelphia Inquirer shows, few are likely to opt for symbolism; they'd rather keep their jobs.

...Tuesday's effort, billed as A Day Without an Immigrant, would be the first such strike by illegal immigrants anywhere in the United States, according to advocates....a "Dear Employer" form letter, prepared by organizers to help workers explain their absence on Feb. 14, was faxed to (restaurateurs) this week. It asked for...support in defeating the Border Protection, Anti-Terrorism and Illegal Immigration Control Act drafted by Reps. James Sensenbrenner (R., Wis.) and Peter King (R., N.Y.) and passed by the House of Representatives in December. The Senate is to discuss immigration next month.

...Owner after owner sounded the same refrain about Mexican workers, many of whom did relocate, by crossing deserts and fording rivers in the company of human smugglers called coyotes. "These people are eager to work, and they're hard-working people," said the owner of a Rittenhouse Square establishment....Undocumented workers are so essential to the food industry nationwide that the National Restaurant Association has made stopping the Sensenbrenner-King bill its top priority in Congress this year....

The Sensenbrenner-King bill would increase fines against employers who hire illegal workers, in some cases by tens of thousands of dollars per violation. It would also classify as "alien smugglers" the groups - including employers, churches and charities - that knowingly and "with reckless disregard" hire or help the immigrants. Migrants would be subject to criminal prosecution. The restaurant association and most immigrant advocates back alternative legislation, drafted by Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.) and Sen. Edward Kennedy (D., Mass.), that ultimately would allow undocumented immigrants to become legal residents.

Knight-Ridder columnist Jack Z. Smith says amnesty for many of the 11 million illegals here now is necessary, but that going forward we need tamper-proof ID for newly-hired immigrants to prove they are here legally; increased federal immigration manpower for workplace enforcement; and stiff fines for employers who hire illegals.

Tony Dolz, a candidate for California State Assembly, 41st District (Santa Monica, Malibu, Topanga) argues against any guest-worker amnesty program. I am sure many "progressives" would call his views extreme, but they reflect a legitimate frustration with the double-standard which allows illegal immigrants to enter our country freely and use public resources without abiding by the most basic of our nation's laws. Dolz writes:

I am a foreign born Hispanic legal immigrant who attained naturalized citizenship through the legal process. Like most Americans, I favor legal immigration and oppose illegal immigration....I believe that the immigration process must be sustainable, orderly and in observance of the law....Make no mistake; guest-worker-amnesty is a betrayal. Let's not accept a Guest Worker-Amnesty Program for the 15 to 20 million foreigners who have already violated our borders and taken advantage of the tax-payers. Let the employers who are addicted to cheap labor pay living wages and medical insurance to Americans instead. The net result will be less congestion, lower taxes, living wages for both low-skill and technical workers, higher quality of education moving at a faster pace and in less crowded classrooms, better and lower-cost healthcare for the elderly and solvent hospitals.

The political reality, unpleasant as it is to some, is that amnesty is not unthinkable, as Dick Morris has pointed out. But fixing the border with Mexico has to come first. A fence hundreds of miles long doesn't faze me one bit, but alone, wouldn't be enough. Where the money for large manpower increases will come from is anyone's guess. That piece of the problem underscores the importance of federal fiscal reforms on a scale inconceivable even to Congress, now.

TECHNORATI TAGS: PHILADELPHIA, ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION, RESTAURANTS, WORK STOPPAGE, PROTEST, GUEST WORKER AMNESTY, BORDER SECURITY, JAMES SENSENBRENNER, PETER KING, JOHN MCCAIN, TED KENNEDY

Posted by Matt Rosenberg at February 13, 2006 05:15 PM

---

---

---

---