Sunday, April 23, 2006

The Growing Rift Between African-Americans and Illegals

Here's a story on the frontpage of The Chicago Tribune :
When more than 100,000 protesters marched through the streets of Chicago to support illegal immigrants, Rev. Gregory Daniels and other African-American leaders took notice.

Daniels is trying to mobilize his own community, matching workers with jobs that pay well. In his Englewood office, he has mounted poster boards with lists of workers he has connected to construction jobs at Donald Trump's new building and other sites.

He's sympathetic to the marchers, but Daniels says illegal immigrants undercut Englewood residents by flooding the market with workers willing to take less money.

"Let me tell you what the mind-set of the African-American is when they see those marches: `They are here to replace us,'" Daniels said. "We've got to be careful because I don't want to see an eruption between the blacks and the browns over the immigration issue."

As Mexicans and other immigrants around the U.S. mobilize for greater rights, increasingly employing the tone and tactics of the 1960s civil rights movement, African-Americans have profound disagreements about where they belong in the debate.
Mickey Kaus over at Slate has been blogging on how not everyone in the Democratic party is "united" on illegals flooding America.This article seems to confirm what Kaus was hinting at.The Democratic party could be the long term big loser on the issue of immigration.