So this is interesting. While American businesses are frustrated at anti-immigrant politicians for introducing and passing laws that make it for businesses to employ immigrants, they’re also donating money to politicians that support the very same policies that hurt their business community.
What the heck?! I’m confused….
I was always told that our economy is willing to do anything for a buck, even if it means hiring immigrants so they don’t have to pay minimum wage, or follow basic health and safety laws to protect us while we’re working.
So why are American businesses feeding the hand that bites them?
Here’s a copy of the article that exposes who American Businesses, like Home Depot, are backing. It was originally posted on imagine2050.net. Click the title to find a complete version of the article.
Businesses Should Follow the Money Trail on Immigration
By Eric K. Ward
7-22-2008(Image gratefully borrowed from Vinh Tran (on left) and WelcomingIdaho (at the bottom) at flicker.com/creativecommons)
Yesterday was hot and humid in Chicago. One of the things I like best about summer heat is that it gives me the perfect excuse to ingest one of Dunkin Doughnut’s Frozen Latte. Yesterday, while I was killing some time and sucking down my frozen latte, I decided to give in to another guilty pleasure and grab yesterday’s New York Times.
As I was giving the front section a good look over, I noticed an editorial entitled Pushing Back on Immigration. In the editorial it is clear that business leaders are frustrated at their inability to secure a workforce and with the federal government’s unwillingness to create rational migration laws in the United States. The NYT editorial congratulated employers around the country who have banded together to defeat local and state-level anti-immigrant legislation.
What isn’t mentioned in the editorial is that the political action committees (PACs) of these same businesses have been some of the most enthusiastic financial supporters of the very same Congresspersons who have blocked meaningful immigrant legislation.Consider Home Depot’s PAC; they gave $130,500 in campaign contributions to anti-immigrant politicians, more than 17% of its total donations. Ironically, these same elected politicians took Home Depots money with one hand, and with the other they introduced anti-immigrant legislation that directly attacks Home Depot – and the business community at-large – because of its supposed neutral stance on immigration.
Home Depot is not alone. Almost 2600 political action committees gave campaign contributions to anti-immigrant members during the 109th Congress (2005-2006), according to a comprehensive analysis of Federal Elections Commission records conducted by the Center for New Community.
As I sat there with my creamy frozen latte, I realized that even the milk industry was not immune from mistakenly financing individual members of Congress who, as a block, are responsible for creating the very labor shortage that the dairy industry currently faces…
sorry! you gotta click on the link to read the whole thing…
Filed under: Politics, immigration | Tagged: American Businesses, anti-immigrant legislation, Business Community, dunkin dougnuts, Home Depot, immigrants, immigration, New York Times, Pushing Back on Immigration
