Tiffany Gabbay
CNSNew
November 15, 2008
Americans are “not concerned” that they may lose jobs to illegal aliens in a tight job market, according to speakers at a panel discussion conducted Thursday in Washington, D.C., by the National Council of La Raza.
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Simon Rosenberg, president and CEO of NDN – formerly the New Democrat Network — said that Republicans are now “paying a steep price for demonizing Hispanics” in their “anti-immigration rhetoric” – rhetoric that he said created the “fear of losing jobs to undocumented immigrants of Americans.”
Research conducted for La Raza, which describes itself as the “largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States,” indicates that Americans are “more concerned” with undocumented immigrants “being able to pay their fair share of taxes,” Rosenberg said, than they are of losing jobs to illegals.
When asked if he still felt that American jobs would not be threatened by undocumented immigrants despite the fact the current unemployment rate is now at a 14-year high of 6.5 percent, Rosenberg told CNSNews.com that he believes undocumented immigrants have taken jobs that Americans “do not want,” but that there “might be” a shift in concern if unemployment rates continue to rise.
David Mermin, a partner at Lake Research Partners, a national public opinion and political strategy research firm hired by La Raza to study American voters, said 62 percent of American voters are now “more interested in converting illegal immigrants into legal taxpayers than deporting them because they might be taking jobs.”
In terms of steps to becoming “legal,” Mermin explained that “paying taxes, passing a criminal background check and learning English” are the most important factors to voters.
La Raza President Janet Murguia, meanwhile, said the fact that Latino voters turned out in unprecedented numbers to support Democratic candidates last week puts the Hispanic vote in the Democrat column – for the moment.
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