The Obama Administration just cannot make the New York Times editorial board happy when it comes to immigration policy. First, the Obama Administration ends the practice of detention and removal of illegal immigrants caught during work site raids. Then, the Obama Administration decides not only shouldn’t they detain and remove illegal immigrant caught during work site raids, but they should give them temporary work permits so that those illegal immigrants will cooperate with prosecutors.
Now, the Obama Administration merely lets the employer target know it is coming to do a payroll audit, which results in the employer terminating the illegal immigrants it had been employing. The result is that the illegal immigrants merely find new jobs in the same location or move to another city to find work, which only continues to undermine the job market for citizens during one of America’s worst economic job markets. According to the New York Times, such a result is “ludicrous.” The only thing ludicrous about the example cited in the New York Times editorial is the callous disregard the editorial board has for citizens.
Specifically, the New York Times cites the case of American Apparel, which is a clothing company in Los Angeles, California. As noted by the editorial, upon receiving word of the payroll audit, American Apparel let go roughly 1,800 illegal immigrants. As further noted by the editorial, American Apparel paid the illegal immigrants from $10 to $12 per hour — “well above the minimum wage and industry standards, plus health benefits.”
According to the Census Bureau, the unemployment rate in Los Angeles County as of August 2009 stood at 12.4%. I assume that America Apparel will look to fill those 1,800 jobs that had been held by illegal immigrants. At a time of such high unemployment, many citizens will be eager to get a job that pays so well and comes with health benefits. What is ludicrous about that outcome? The New York Times editorial board should be forced to face the 1,800 citizens who end up in those jobs and tell them why it is unfair that the illegal immigrants were fired from those jobs.
It is high time the New York Times editorial board got itself out of the Upper West Side of Manhattan and spent a little bit of time among the Americans who are fighting to keep their heads above water. Maybe then their sympathy will directed in the right direction.
