Tuesday, December 03, 2002

Welcome the new neighbors alert!
The Philadelphia Inquirer warms the heart with Regional center planned to aid recent immigrants:
The presence of immigrants has increased sharply over the last decade in Southeastern Pennsylvania, and an effort is under way to establish a regional office to help foreigners settle into the community and find jobs.
Dang! That's right nice of them!

But what's this?
A suburban group with roots in advocating on behalf of illegal Irish workers is pursuing the money and political clout to set up a resource center that would, among its main functions, focus on immigrant labor.
...
The office would help documented and undocumented immigrants find jobs, help employers who hire them, and serve as a one-stop referral site for more than 100 agencies providing assistance to the foreign-born.
...
By year's end, the group will know whether the state has approved its request for $900,000 over three years, O'Callaghan said.
State money for aiding and abetting illegal aliens and inevitably, immigration fraud. I'm shocked! But let's hear what the usual suspects say:
Sam Katz, chief executive officer of Greater Philadelphia First, met with O'Callaghan during the fall. Katz supports the center, because the group he leads - a consortium of chief executive officers - seeks to boost economic competitiveness in the region.

Katz said immigrants brought "great assets" to the places where they settle. "It's an expansion of the talent pool that companies get to draw on for their workforce," said Katz, a former Republican mayoral candidate.
...
Organized labor has long criticized immigration - mainly undocumented workers - for driving down wages. But several major union leaders are on the new group's board.

Among them is Pat Gillespie, business manager of the Building Trades Council. Gillespie said he supported the center's mission, including efforts to grease the pipeline between employers and immigrant workers.

"Undocumented workers are going to work someplace," Gillespie said. "I'd rather have them work union."
Apparently as long as the illegal aliens work cheap and pay union dues, all the local swells are happy.