Black Americans Upset Over Obama's Immigration...

[kantuckyII]

Seriously, when 93% of any group votes for a candidate a second time, they're sure easy to take for granted!

Many African-Americans concerned about Obama’s focus on immigrant rights

WASHINGTON — No sooner did President Barack Obama and a group of senators separately outline proposals to revamp the nation’s immigration system than the phone lines on several African-American-oriented talk radio shows heated up with callers blasting the plans.

“Amnesty,” complained Frankie from Maryland recently on the nationally syndicated “Keeping it Real with Al Sharpton.”

A political payback to Hispanic voters that does little or nothing for African-Americans, reasoned Sam from Milwaukee on Wisconsin’s 1290 WMCS AM’s “Earl Ingram Show.”

“Our issues are not being highlighted and pushed, and things like gay marriage and (immigration) are being pushed to the forefront,” the caller said. “Hispanics are effectively organized. For us not to be organized and for us not to hold our leadership accountable is disheartening.”

Although the civil rights establishment, from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People to the Urban League and Sharpton, squarely back Obama’s desire to tackle immigration, the president’s call has reignited complaints within the African-American community that he is addressing the specific needs of almost all major voting blocs – Hispanics, women, gays – except for the African-Americans who gave him 93 percent of their vote.

Obama is expected to address the immigration issue again Tuesday in his State of the Union address and when he travels to Asheville, N.C., on Wednesday and visits Chicago and suburban Atlanta on Thursday to sell his second-term agenda.

“There (are) clearly different views in the African-American community around immigration,” Sharpton said on his radio show last month. “Some have said they’re (illegal immigrants) taking our jobs, they dilute our strength. Others have said we’ve got to have rights for everybody or we don’t have it for anybody, and this is not just a Latino issue because immigration laws cover the Caribbean, cover Africans, cover South Americans.”

Some angst over Obama addressing immigration and other issues so soon in his second term has boiled over into public criticism of the nation’s first African-American president by many African-Americans, from the grassroots to the political levels.

Bernard Anderson, an Obama supporter and a former assistant labor secretary during Bill Clinton’s presidency, recently told an African-American economic summit at Washington’s Howard University that African-Americans should no longer give Obama “a pass” on dealing with issues that directly impact their community.

“He is not going to run again for anything. He does not deserve a pass anymore,” Anderson said. “Let him not only find his voice but summon his courage and use his political capital to address racial inequality. He owes that to the African-American.”

Some members of the Congressional Black Caucus are quietly seething because Obama hasn’t met with the 42-member group since May 13, 2011. Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Fla., vented to the National Newspaper Publishers Association last month. He said the black caucus sent the White House the names of 61 potential candidates for positions in a second-term administration that already is coming under fire for being heavy on white males.

“Not one of that 61 was selected – not one,” Hastings told the African-American newspaper publishers at a Fort Lauderdale, Fla., conference.

Obama administration officials reject assertions that the president is race-adverse. Obama has consistently said he takes a “rising tide lifts all boats” approach to governing and that his policies benefit all Americans, not just one group.

“I think comprehensive immigration reform is not about a specific community, it’s about a problem that we need to address as a whole,” White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said last week.

But some African-Americans view Obama’s immigration drive as an overture to Hispanics who helped power his re-election in November with 71 percent of their vote.

“The amount of blacks who are impacted by this legislation is so small it’s infinitesimal,” talk show host Earl Ingram said. “Minuscule.”

A 2009 report by the Migration Policy Institute found that black immigrants from all regions of the world accounted for just 9 percent of the overall immigrant population in the United States.

However, a 2011 report by the same group discovered that blacks from Africa, though just 3 percent of the U.S. foreign-born population, are among the fastest-growing immigrant groups in this country.

From 1980 to 2009, the number of African blacks in the United States has swelled from 64,000 to 1.1 million, according to the 2011 report.

If that growth trend continues, Africa will supplant the Caribbean as the major source region for the U.S. black immigrant population by 2020, the Migration Policy Institute study concludes.

Still, Ingram says many of his listeners see Obama’s attempt to push forward on immigration as a reminder of what the president hasn’t done to improve economic conditions for African-Americans.

“I would say a bulk of my listenership is anti-immigration,” he said. “You have to understand that in the community in which I live the percentage of African-Americans who are unemployed. They look at what’s going on with immigration as an affront to African-Americans who can’t pay their mortgages because many of the immigrants come here, they are hired at less than minimum wage.”

The African-American unemployment rate is at 13.8 percent, according to recently released government figures, nearly twice the 7 percent jobless rate for whites. The nation’s overall unemployment rate is 7.9 percent. For Hispanics, the rate is 9.7 percent.

A 2009 study by George Borjas of Harvard University, Jeffrey Grogger of the University of Chicago and George Hanson of the University of California, San Diego, looked at 1960-2000 Census data and found that as immigrants disproportionately increased the supply of workers in a particular area, wages of African-American workers in that area fell, the employment rate declined and the incarceration rate rose.

“Our analysis suggests that a 10 percent immigration-induced increase in the supply of a particular skill group reduced the black wage by 2.5 percent, lowered the employment rate of black men by 5.9 percentage points, and increased the incarceration rate of blacks by 1.3 percentage points,” the professors wrote in the study.

Todd Shaw, a political science and African-American studies professor at the University of South Carolina, believes “the concern that African Americans are hostile to immigrant workers is a bit overplayed.”

“It’s more a concern about the opportunity ladder than it is the perception that African-Americans don’t think there should be economic fairness to other groups,” Shaw added.

Many civil rights leaders also believe that African-American concerns about the White House and Congress pushing for new immigration laws are overhyped. NAACP President Benjamin Jealous said, “Four out of five black voters are in support of immigration reform.”

But some polls tell a different story. A Pew Research poll released in January found that 56 percent of African-Americans feel there are “very strong” or “strong” conflicts between immigrants and people born in the United States. But perceptions may be improving –January’s figure is a drop from 61 percent in 2009.

A different Pew Hispanic poll found that while all groups of workers have seen gains in employment, Hispanics and Asians have experienced a faster rate of growth than African-Americans and whites.

Hispanic employment increased 6.5 percent between 2009 and 2011, compared with a 2.2 percent increase for African Americans and just 1.1 percent for whites.



The sensitivity of the immigration issue within the African-American community isn’t lost on African-American and Hispanic leaders who are striving for a unified front.

Sharpton and Janet Murguia, president of the National Council of La Raza, an immigration advocacy coalition, walked together to their seats at Obama’s second inauguration ceremony last month.

Murguia has made strengthening ties with the African-American community a key component of her leadership. She was the first Hispanic leader to give the keynote speech at the annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Unity Breakfast in Birmingham, Ala. She marched arm in arm with Sharpton, Jealous and Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., at last year’s Selma-to-Montgomery march, which focused on voter rights and anti-illegal immigrant laws like those in Alabama.

“I think they see echoes of their own civil rights movement in the struggle to bring equity and dignity to people who are in the shadows,” Murguia said of the black leaders.

They also see political opportunity, said Rep. William Lacy Clay, D-Mo.

“African-American leadership understands, and I understand this clearly, that we must come together with the Latino community and help them address some of their issues so that down the road they help us address ours.”

###

[Kentucky Trojan]

Where is the link to this story?

[kantuckyII]

http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/02/11/3 ... erned.html
That is actually a circulated story, so quite a few newspapers picked it up and published the same thing but here's one link to it

[Kentucky Trojan]

Thanks

[Bryce]

The numbers keep going up for those that are against Obama's immigration policies. That is great to see!

[Baruch Spinoza]

But to think we are going to back buses up and say get on is simply being uninformed about the problem. peace

[dazed&confused]

The numbers keep going up for those that are against Obama's immigration policies. That is great to see!

What day is it? Anyone can go online and cite a poll that says some demographic somewhere supports/disapproves their point of view. Bottom line- they're here. they've been here for years. We need to deal with undocumented immigrants in a mature and sustainable manner.

[Runner]

I agree...Deport the undocumented ones.

[LICKING COUNTY FAN]

Get rid of all of the illegals
No president regardless of party affiliation will ever do this this, under the system we have in place.

[dazed&confused]

12 million undocumented. OK, where do you start? Really!

[Runner]

Pick any town in any state. There are plenty of starting points

[dazed&confused]

Pick any town in any state. There are plenty of starting points

Cost? I'm just asking. There are plenty of small businesses who don't want to bother with certifying they are hiring legal workers. Don't talk out both sides of your mouth! If you hire illegals- YOU go to prison. How many entrepreneurs will sign on to that? I'm waiting.....

[Runner]

Owners should be given 2 options....Pay a fine to cover the cost of all taxes they have evaded for hiring the illegals OR go to prison. I have no problem with that. HONEST companies would not hire illegals to start with.

[dazed&confused]

Been to a hotel lately? Ever interact with the housekeeeping?

[Runner]

I have been to plenty and have had no problems with them. Just because you do not understand their language, does not mean they are illegals. Most are from Pakistan or India or that region and are here legally.

Maybe you should get out more often.

[Bryce]

Good points on your post Runner.

The largest industries for illegals is agricultural and construction. I have been approached many times by illegals that wanted jobs. I have never hired one. If they cannot show credentials that they are here legally, they get shipped on the road. Sure, I could hire them and pay them $3-$4 an hour and they would be happy. But too many Americans need jobs and they are a priority on my list.

As for the hotel post above yours, I thought it was funny as well. Some people just don't have a clue.

And as for the cost of removing illegals, Obama has squandered away enough on his brainless spending that it in itself would have gone a long way in getting rid of the moochers.

[Runner]

Bryce, that is the difference with you and the other dems on here. They want to allow illegals in. They seem to have the deep pockets full of things to give away to them as they cross over the border. But let someone from here go into Mexico illegally and see what happens to them.

[LICKING COUNTY FAN]

I work at a hotel in Columbus and know the manager who does the hiring for house keeping and know for a fact all of her people are legal.

[dazed&confused]

I have been to plenty and have had no problems with them. Just because you do not understand their language, does not mean they are illegals. Most are from Pakistan or India or that region and are here legally.

Maybe you should get out more often.

Yea, maybe I should. I only spend about 120 days on the road each year!

[noreply66]

Bryce, that is the difference with you and the other dems on here. They want to allow illegals in. They seem to have the deep pockets full of things to give away to them as they cross over the border. But let someone from here go into Mexico illegally and see what happens to them.

They die from drinking the water---stay away from the ice too.