Obama admits that immigrants drive down wages—well, sort of

During a recent NPI debate, Democratic hopefuls were, in the words of the New York Times, “perplexed” by pointed questions regarding immigration.

When asked directly whether illegal aliens were driving down wages, John Edwards neatly sidestepped the question by declaring that “there are a lot of things driving down wages” in this country.

Barack Obama actually gave a straight answer: “I believe that there are circumstances where, in fact, illegal immigrants are driving down wages.” But he immediately weakened the clear import of the statement by asking, rhetorically, “How do we fix it?” and then adding that “when [the question is] posed that way, then the thinking is that somehow we have to pit low-wage American workers versus low-wage immigrant workers.”

“Somehow,” indeed! “We” don’t “pit”‘ illegal aliens against our own workforce. We simply tolerate their presence. And they are here for one reason: to compete for American jobs on the basis of price. It’s a competition the illegals will always win: When it comes to accepting a below-poverty-level wage, a denizen of the Third World will beat an American hands-down every time.

During the same debate, all the Democratic candidates vehemently opposed the idea of American citizens turning in illegal aliens to the authorities. Hillary Clinton said that the illegals were “embedded” in our society, and said that an American who reports on illegals is a “suspicious vigilante.” Dennis Kucinich too decried the horrid specter of “vigilantism.”

How far the Democratic party has sunk! The onetime champion of American labor now champions those who are destroying American labor’s standard of living, and admonishes American workers not to protect their own interests, neither by reporting the intruders to the authorities, nor even by speaking the truth about them. Â