On immigration, Dan Pfeiffer sides with billionaires, not US workers

http://twitter.com/#!/pfeiffer44/status/487366706692505600

Dan Pfeiffer,  Senior Advisor to President Obama, thinks casino magnate Sheldon Adelson’s co-authorship of this New York Times op-ed is very noteworthy. Adelson and two of his fellow pro-Open Borders billionaires (Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates) argue implicitly for amnesty for illegal aliens and higher limits on foreign worker visas such as H1-Bs. The authors studiously avoid the term “amnesty” but we all know that’s one of the “reforms” they are after:

The [Gang of Eight comprehensive immigration reform bill which failed last year] also included a sensible plan that would have allowed illegal residents to obtain citizenship, though only after they had earned the right to do so.

That’s the Open Borders Lobby’s code for “amnesty, amnesty, amnesty.”

The arguments in the op-ed, of course, are neither remarkable nor new.  All three of the billionaire authors have already repeatedly declared their support for such reforms (see, for example, here, here, and here). Here’s Adelson back in 2012, declaring his support for the Dream Act and a path to citizenship, as well as his opposition to deportation of illegal aliens:

On immigration: “I’m pro-Dream Act, I’m pro the Dream Act. My parents were immigrants to this  country,” he said. “What are we going to do ? Listen, I’m sure a lot of my parents generation …..snuck onto the ship and they came into the country.

“So – people will do anything to leave massacres and to leave  the economic conditions – they can’t put food on their own table.

“There has been in our history a lot of illegal immigration. Do I approve of it? No,  but it’s here.

“It would be inhumane to send those people back , to send 12 million people out of this country to disrupt a whole potpourri of family issues” over what happens to the children.

“I mean  it’s all ridiculous.  So we’ve  got to find a way, find a route  for those people to get legal citizenship,” he said.

Taken together, the reforms advocated by the three billionaires would result in increased competition for already-scarce jobs here in the U.S. We understand that’s great for American corporations like the one run by Adelson. The effects on American workers, however, would be far less benign.

Update:

Valerie Jarrett, too:

http://twitter.com/#!/vj44/status/487377146814287872

Related:

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-NY, pretends to care about low-wage American workers

Nancy Pelosi posts cartoon depicting US businessmen as greedy capitalist pigs

Want US workers to earn more? Mickey Kaus has an idea

Read more: http://twitchy.com/2014/07/10/on-immigration-dan-pfeiffer-sides-with-billionaires-not-us-workers/

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