The following letters, articles and commentaries demonstrate a growing concern among America's diverse ethnic populations, white, black, yellow and brown, putting to rest the idea that opposing illegal immigration is a racist concept. If you wish to contribute to this page, please send your contact us at: ednelson@usbc.org . Thank you.

Latinos Speaking Out in Support of Arizona's New Law

Phoenix, Arizona (CNN) -- Sue Schwartz says she's been called a racist so many times she doesn't mind the label anymore. If wanting immigrants to enter the country legally, like her great-grandparents from Mexico, and obey the laws of the land makes her racist, then so be it, she says firmly. "I'm getting to the point I wear it with pride," says Schwartz, a lifelong Arizonan who has warily watched the growth of the illegal immigrant population in the state over the course of her life. About 500,000 unauthorized immigrants were believed to live in Arizona in 2008, and 11.9 million nationwide, up from 3.5 million nationwide in 1990, according to a Pew Hispanic Center report published in 2009.

This year, the tide is finally turning in her favor, she says, with the passage of SB 1070, aimed at cracking down on illegal immigration. The new law requires immigrants to carry their alien registration documents at all times and requires police to question people if there is reason to suspect they're in the United States illegally. "I hope it makes a lot of them leave on their own, self-deportation. Hopefully that'll open up more jobs. There's a lot of people here who will do menial jobs -- maybe not pick lettuce, but these people aren't just picking lettuce any more," says Schwartz. The new law also targets those who hire illegal immigrant day laborers or knowingly transport them.

Schwartz, a retired USPS worker, says undocumented workers are taking jobs from citizens like her teenage granddaughter, who hasn't been able to find a job since she began looking after she turned 15. "She can't even work at the Hometown Buffet if she doesn't speak Spanish. How fair is that?" she said.

But Schwartz and some other Americans with Hispanic backgrounds who spoke with CNN say the problem with illegal immigrants isn't just the jobs they take. It's how they're overrunning towns like Phoenix, turning them into "mini-Mexicos" with their trash-filled streets and loud music, according to Schwartz.

Of equal concern to her friend, Martha Payan, is how she claims illegal immigrants "fleece" government coffers by collecting welfare on multiple children, or vanish without a trace after an arrest or a hospital visit. The two women, who became acquainted through various demonstrations in the metro Phoenix area, met Thursday to discuss their views outside the Maricopa County Municipal building, as more backlash against the controversial immigration law continued to flood the city. Latin pop star Shakira arrived in town Thursday to discuss SB 1070 with Mayor Phil Gordon, who has vowed to fight the law.

This comes a day after Mexico urged its citizens not to travel to Arizona. Sporting a white baseball cap that that reads, "100% American Citizen," Schwartz says she believes that SB 1070 came about because law enforcement in Phoenix was fed up over not being able to ask suspects about their immigration status. "Any time an American does something wrong or breaks the law they're going to pay the consequences. Whenever an illegal does something wrong they get a new ID and become a new person," she says. "I want the laws same for everybody here, not bent for them." The 59-year-old mother of four adult children says her Mexican parents and grandparents taught her a respect for the law at an early age. Her grandmother, who lived in Juarez, Mexico, after being kicked out of the United States for smuggling drugs, encouraged her to get a good education and speak English, her second language, outside of the home. "If I entered another country illegally I'd go to jail, yet they're demanding better treatment than their government would give us," she says.

Anna Gaines, a Mexican-born U.S. citizen, says she took up the fight against illegal immigration after becoming disillusioned by the attitudes of immigrant families that she witnessed as a teacher in the Paradise Valley School District in Paradise, Arizona. "Many of these families were having one child after another just to earn a paycheck from the U.S. government and they didn't care about their children's education," says Gaines, the controversial founder of American Citizens United, a grass-roots organization known for its extreme views on immigration enforcement. "They didn't want to contribute, just take."

Gaines, who came to the United States as a nurse on a work visa during the Vietnam War and met her current husband, says she thinks immigrants have changed over the years. "There used to be a level of dignity and self-respect. They were hard-working people who wanted to contribute to American society because it was better than where they came from," says Gaines, a petite woman in her 70s. "But our government has been giving them handouts for so long that now they expect them." Gaines says SB 1070 mirrors federal law on fortifying the borders, allowing local officials to enforce immigration law in a manner that the federal government should have been doing all along. "We as Americans have the right to defend this country's laws. There's nothing racist about protecting the country," she says.

Payan, originally from Puerto Rico, hopes the law will deter future illegal immigration. "I hope it stops trespassers and lets people know the law is the law and you cross that border illegally, it's a crime," she says. Payan has also been called "traidora," or traitor, by neighbors in her primarily Hispanic neighborhood who know how she feels about illegal immigrants. "They know how I feel. I don't hide my feeling," she says. "I've already had by apartment broken into and had my car hit by an illegal. What more do I have to lose?"

Back on Uncle Sam's Plantation

Star Parker - Syndicated Columnist

Six years ago I wrote a book called Uncle Sam's Plantation. I wrote the book to tell my own story of what I saw living inside the welfare state and my own transformation out of it.

I said in that book that indeed there are two Americas -- a poor America on socialism and a wealthy America on capitalism.

I talked about government programs like Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Job Opportunities and Basic Skills Training(JOBS), Emergency Assistance to Needy Families with Children (EANF),Section 8 Housing, and Food Stamps.

A vast sea of perhaps well-intentioned government programs, all initially set into motion in the 1960s by Democrats, that were going to lift the nation's poor out of poverty.

A benevolent Uncle Sam welcomed mostly poor black Americans onto the government plantation. Those who accepted the invitation switched mindsets from "How do I take care of myself?" to "What do I have to do to stay on the plantation?"

Instead of solving economic problems, government welfare socialism created monstrous moral and spiritual problems -- the kind of problems that are inevitable when individuals turn responsibility for their lives over to others.

The legacy of American socialism is our blighted inner cities, dysfunctional inner city schools, and broken black families.

Through God's grace, I found my way out. It was then that I understood what freedom meant and how great this country is.

I had the privilege of working on welfare reform in 1996 which was passed by a Republican controlled Congress.

I thought we were on the road to moving socialism out of our poor black communities and replacing it with wealth-producing American capitalism.

But, incredibly, we are now going in the opposite direction.

Instead of poor America on socialism becoming more like rich America on capitalism, rich America on capitalism is becoming like poor America on socialism.

Uncle Sam has welcomed our banks onto the plantation and they have said, "Thank you, Suh."

Now, instead of thinking about what creative things need to be done to serve customers, they are thinking about what they have to tell Massah in order to get their cash.

There is some kind of irony that this is all happening under our first black president on the 200th anniversary of the birthday of Abraham Lincoln.

Worse, socialism seems to be the element of our new young president. And maybe even more troubling, our corporate executives seem happy to move onto the plantation.

In an op-Ed on the opinion page of the Washington Post, Mr. Obama is clear that the goal of his trillion dollar spending plan is much more than short term economic stimulus.

"This plan is more than a prescription for short-term spending -- it's a strategy for America 's long-term growth and opportunity in areas such as renewable energy, healthcare, and education."

Perhaps more incredibly, Obama seems to think that government taking over an economy is a new idea. Or that massive growth in government can take place "with unprecedented transparency and accountability."

Yes, sir, we heard it from Jimmy Carter when he created the Department of Energy, the Synfuels Corporation, and the Department of Education.

Or how about the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 -- The War on Poverty -- which President Johnson said "...does not merely expand old programs or improve what is already being done. It charts a new course. It strikes at the causes, not just the consequences of poverty."

Trillions of dollars later, black poverty is the same. But black families are not, with triple the incidence of single-parent homes and out-of-wedlock births.

It's not complicated. Americans can accept Barack Obama's invitation to move onto the plantation. Or they can choose personal responsibility and freedom.

Does anyone really need to think about what the choice should be?

"The trouble with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money."

Blacks "are being victimized by mass immigration"

Dr. Frank Morris, former Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Executive Director, declares that America's leaders are misinformed or are simply ignoring the plight of low-income Black American workers, who are being victimized by mass immigration. Morris has pledged to get the facts about the negative consequences of mass immigration into the hands of all Americans as well as
America's leaders whose public statements contradict the facts.

To get that message to all Americans, television advertising spots were launched this week featuring Morris and his message. The spots are scheduled to play across the country. They were developed by Dr. Morris and the Coalition for the Future American Worker.

Morris stated, "America's leaders need to wake up. It's a fact that foreign workers are taking jobs and depressing wages of Americans from all backgrounds. However, Black workers are being disproportionately affected. Studies prove 40% of the decline in Black employment is due to immigration. And the effects will become even more pronounced for our most vulnerable workers as the economy gets worse. It's time for America's leaders, especially our Black leaders, to put the most vulnerable American workers' interests ahead of foreign workers' and the cheap labor businesses that hire them."

While many studies document immigration's effect on American workers, Morris frequently cites the National Bureau of Economic Research Paper 12518 in the TV spots. NBER Paper 12518 was developed by Harvard professor George Borjas, University of Chicago's Jeffrey Grogger and University of California's Gordon Hanson.

More information about the Coalition for the Future American Worker is available at the link.

I'm a Racist?

I am a black woman who grew up in rural Oklahoma, where train tracks separated cultures, and I was one of only two blacks in my senior class. I have been a soldier in the anti-American Middle East, and I have felt the isolation of being a conservative Republican instead of the liberal Democrat I am expected to be. Currently, I sport a badge of authority.

Because of these life experiences, I thought I had been called every name in the book except the one my parents gave me. But when a co-worker called me a racist, I was absolutely unprepared.

The accusation was made largely because of a sticker on the back of my truck. The simple statement "Stop illegal immigration" has earned me angry looks and obscene gestures in traffic. I have watched as cars rush to pull up beside the "redneck." Their scowls often turn to bewilderment when they spot me behind the wheel.

My Hispanic co-worker played the ace-in-the-hole race card by insisting only Latinos are being targeted for immigration reform. When I pointed out my sticker mentioned no race in particular, he stated, "It doesn't matter because everyone knows who you are referring to."

At that moment, I realized just how much irrational emotional feelings and personal agendas have alarmingly snuffed out common sense in this country. From top lawmakers in Washington to so-called sanctuary cities, everyone has succumbed to massive pressure from illegal factions.

Let us define common sense. It is the natural instinct that compels us to the logical thing when faced with an issue shrouded in smoke screens.

Let us ignore tear-jerker tales of individual tragedies that are designed to pull our heartstrings, and realize they are smoke and mirrors hiding the truth, while instilling guilt about feelings of unease with the sieve our borders have become.

Illegal immigrants in this country, like any other criminal, have an excuse for why they committed a crime. But if the tale is sad enough, should we forgive them for their original criminal act because they decide to behave? Should we allow them to take jobs away from law-abiding Americans and call them noble for doing so? How about we offer to pay their medical bills and send their children to college? If, in the course of providing these things, we find ourselves going broke, and we say to them, "Enough is enough, we cannot ignore your crimes any longer because it only encourages more criminals," should we be surprised when these violators take to the streets demanding they be allowed to continue the way of life they have become accustomed to?

When illegals squawk about how we can't survive without their presence, do we dare remind them there are plenty legal folks - and others who are waiting in line to be legal - who are eager to help us out?

When anyone points out these observations, they are lambasted, shouted down, and slapped with the feared moniker "racist," a word that has ruined lives, ended careers and been the gas-filled card thrown on blazing fires of conflicts between majority and minority.

Racism today can never measure up to the raw beginnings and bloody history of the word as it pertains to our country. It began with slavery, evolved into lynchings, oppression and separate but never equal laws. It culminated with marches and dissent demanding the equality all citizens were promised in the Constitution. But the key word here is "citizen."

The righteous marches led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. during the bloody turmoil of the civil rights era, should never be compared to the audacious, foreign-flag-waving parades of illegals and their sympathizers being carried out in American streets. Politicians pandering for future votes, and much of the media, overwhelmingly sympathize with the flaunting of our laws, and assure the "undocumented" protesters their demands are reasonable. I am a fighter and I refuse to be bullied. I have earned, the hard way, the right to display my opinion. If my "Stop illegal immigration" sticker offends you, maybe you should focus on the one next to it that states, "My son is a United States Marine." Then hopefully you will understand that sacrifice and fighting for country runs deep in my family. Billie Louden (loudenview@aol.com) is a deputy sheriff and an Army veteran.

An Hispanic website formed by a a group of concerned Americans of Hispanic/Latino heritage, some first or second generation, others recent legal immigrants, who believe illegal immigration harms America and a guest worker amnesty will do the same.

For media seeking interviews please contact Ira Mehlman at 310 821 4283 or Susan Wysoki at 804 221 7084.

African-Americans Join The Minutemen

LOS ANGELES
At least 400 opponents of illegal immigration staged a protest outside the presidential retreat in Crawford, Texas. The rally was part of a coast-to-coast campaign that set off earlier this week from a place many may find surprising -- an all-black Los Angeles neighborhood,

The anti-immigration group the Minutemen reached out to the African American community to join them.

Sean Jourdan is one of the people at the kick-off who believe that illegal immigration is having a devastating impact on the black community.

He says he doesn't buy the argument that illegal immigrants only take jobs no one else will do.

"When they say these are jobs we don't want. I don't know what jobs they're talking about but the jobs I was in ? construction trades, telecommunication ? it has definitely been affected," says Jourdan.

Jourdan claims he's making $2,000 less a month now, and blames the availability of cheaper labor.

"That border being as porous as it is, is like a loaded gun to any American worker's head ... We can get rid of you tomorrow for anyone who's willing to work for half the price."

According to a recent poll, blacks are more likely than whites to feel immigrants take away their jobs, but they were less likely than whites to be in favor of immigration restrictions.

Hard Working, Patriotic, African-Americans Being Pushed Aside

I am sick of seeing hard working, patriotic, African-Americans being pushed aside in this country in favor of people who do not care about our Flag. And for them [illegal aliens] to demand citizenship from my government just makes my blood boil.

As an African-American, I am highly offended that some Senators would compare the Civil Rights movement to current immigration problems. Since the time we arrived here, African-Americans have endured years of slavery, a century of oppression, hatred and injustice, and we continue to face discrimination to this day.

Immigration should stop entirely until the U.S. Government can regain control of our borders and develop sensible immigration laws.

No sympathy should be given to any illegal aliens unless and until until they are willing to declare themselves obedient to our our country and our Flag. We must forbit citizenship to citizens from any country that grants dual citizenship as this guarantees divided loyalty.

America has always welcomed the suffering, oppressed people from all over the world. But it is a dangerous game to allow undesirable foreign elements to poison our civilization and threaten the safety of the country that our forefathers have established for American citizens.

I love my country. My father spent 30 years of his life defending it so I would not have too, but it seems I am doing just that. These marchers are not marching for immigrants rights they are marching for illegal immigrant rights. And that is just plain wrong.

The U.S. Government has created cultural and social imbalances which may lead to dangerous racial tensions or even a civil war. The time to fix these problems is now.

Ms. A. Frazier

Guests or Gate Crashers

Immigration is yet another issue which we seem unable to discuss rationally -- in part because words have been twisted beyond recognition in political rhetoric.

We can't even call illegal immigrants "illegal immigrants." The politically correct evasion is "undocumented workers."

Do American citizens go around carrying documents with them when they work or apply for work? Most Americans are undocumented workers but they are not illegal immigrants. There is a difference.

The Bush administration is pushing a program to legalize "guest workers." But what is a guest? Someone you have invited. People who force their way into your home without your permission are called gate crashers.

If truth-in-packaging laws applied to politics, the Bush guest worker program would have to be called a "gate-crasher worker" program. The President's proposal would solve the problem of illegal immigration by legalizing it after the fact.

We could solve the problem of all illegal activity anywhere by legalizing it. Why use this approach only with immigration? Why should any of us pay a speeding ticket if immigration scofflaws are legalized after the fact for committing a federal crime?

Most of the arguments for not enforcing our immigration laws are exercises in frivolous rhetoric and slippery sophistry, rather than serious arguments that will stand up under scrutiny.

How often have we heard that illegal immigrants "take jobs that Americans will not do"? What is missing in this argument is what is crucial in any economic argument: price.

Americans will not take many jobs at their current pay levels -- and those pay levels will not rise so long as poverty-stricken immigrants are willing to take those jobs.

If Mexican journalists were flooding into the United States and taking jobs as reporters and editors at half the pay being earned by American reporters and editors, maybe people in the media would understand why the argument about "taking jobs that Americans don't want" is such nonsense.

Another variation on the same theme is that we "need" the millions of illegal aliens already in the United States. "Need" is another word that blithely ignores prices.

If jet planes were on sale for a thousand dollars each, I would probably "need" a couple of them -- an extra one to fly when the first one needed repair or maintenance. But since these planes cost millions of dollars, I don't even "need" one.

There is no fixed amount of "need," independently of prices, whether with planes or workers.

None of the rhetoric and sophistry that we hear about immigration deals with the plain and ugly reality: Politicians are afraid of losing the Hispanic vote and businesses want cheap labor.

What millions of other Americans want has been brushed aside, as if they don't count, and they have been soothed with pious words. But now the voters are getting fed up, which is why there are immigration bills in Congress.

The old inevitability ploy is often trotted out in immigration debates: It is not possible to either keep out illegal immigrants or to expel the ones already here.

If you mean stopping every single illegal immigrant from getting in or expelling every single illegal immigrant who is already here, that may well be true. But does the fact that we cannot prevent every single murder cause us to stop enforcing the laws against murder?

Since existing immigration laws are not being enforced, how can anyone say that it would not do any good to try? People who get caught illegally crossing the border into the United States pay no penalty whatever. They are sent back home and can try again.

What if bank robbers who were caught were simply told to give the money back and not do it again? What if murderers who were caught were turned loose and warned not to kill again? Would that be proof that it is futile to take action, when no action was taken?

Let's hope the immigration bills before Congress can at least get an honest debate, instead of the word games we have been hearing for too long.

Thomas Sowell

L.A. Workers Join Fierce Debate Over Immigration.

Jobs are a key issue in an area with a large Latino population and high black unemployment.

Drexell Johnson and his Young Black Contractors of South Central Inc. are hungry for work ó and when polite requests for an opportunity are rebuffed, they're not afraid to raise a ruckus. After Johnson was cut out of a contract when Staples Center was being built, he drove to the construction site, spinning 360-degree rolls and kicking up doughnuts of dust until, he said, a bulldozer nearly ran him down.

In Torrance, his group staged a mock hanging in front of an automaker's office. And earlier this month, they hauled a makeshift "slave ship" to an Inglewood mall development to symbolize economic injustice.

The tactics may seem outrageous, but they underscore the rage and frustration that Johnson and his cohorts feel about losing out to other workers in the region's construction boom. Their anger is fueled by a 14% unemployment rate among African Americans in Los Angeles, twice as high as among whites.

So the news that President Bush and some members of Congress are pushing to bring more blue-collar guest workers into the country ó perhaps 400,000 annually ó leaves the contractors indignant. "Hell, no, don't bring no one in from nowhere," said Johnson, a 47-year-old Mississippi native who founded his consortium of 35 minority contractors a decade ago. "Train the people here. Give the people here the same opportunity you're willing to give someone out of this country."

The guest-worker proposals have reignited fierce debate ó and sharply divided the Republican Party ó over some of the most controversial aspects of national immigration policy. Do immigrants take jobs from Americans? Or are they needed to fill jobs Americans won't do? Do they lower the wages of America's least-educated workers? Or do they benefit most Americans by providing cheap labor for a wide range of jobs, from nannies to construction workers?

Such questions are particularly critical in California, where immigrants make up one-third of the state's labor force, the highest percentage in the nation. Unlike legislation recently passed in the House, the Senate's comprehensive immigration bill, scheduled for debate next month, is expected to contain bipartisan provisions for guest workers and a path to legalization for undocumented immigrants.

The proposal to allow hundreds of thousands of guest workers into the country each year to fill jobs if qualified Americans can't be found for them is sponsored by Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Edward Kennedy (D-Mass). It is considered the most likely of several proposals to be included in the Senate's bill; Bush also advocates a temporary-worker program but has provided few details about how it would work.

Backers of the McCain-Kennedy approach include a rare alliance of business and labor leaders who say there is a need for more immigrants to fill jobs in such blue-collar fields as landscaping, construction, healthcare and food service. As baby boomers retire, advocates say, the need for new immigrant labor will grow. Supporters also argue that so many migrants come here illegally ó 700,000 annually, according to estimates by the Pew Hispanic Center ó that the most realistic option is to provide legal ways for some of them to work. "It is a common-sense solution to bring an underground economy above ground, with strong labor protections to improve working conditions for all," Kennedy said in a statement.

But the proposal has proved highly divisive, splintering alliances and creating new ones. Republicans are split between those who support business demands for more workers and those who want to restrict immigration. Democrats also are torn, some by issues stemming from ethnicity and class. "The Democratic Party cannot afford to ignore the tension and anger among blue-collar African Americans and whites here, because they feel [immigrants] are taking their jobs," said Kerman Maddox, a Los Angeles public relations executive who has worked on several Democratic campaigns.

"Everyone wants the emerging Latino vote, but at what expense?" Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) opposes a large-scale guest-worker program outside agriculture, fearing it will increase illegal immigration. Sen. Barbara Boxer, also a California Democrat, has voiced similar fears, opposing Bush's proposal. But their constituents are strongly divided, as was demonstrated last week when activists held dueling rallies at Feinstein's Los Angeles office.

A coalition of churches, labor unions and immigrant advocacy groups staged a noisy rally, featuring Korean drums and a Mexican trumpeter, urging legalization for undocumented immigrants and more visas for workers and relatives of Americans. Later that evening, immigration-control advocates held a vigil urging Feinstein to oppose any new guest-worker program.

Latinos themselves are split on the issue. A Pew Hispanic Center poll last August found that 34% of American-born Latinos surveyed believed that illegal immigrants hurt the economy by driving down wages, compared with 55% who viewed them as an economic benefit by providing cheap labor. The survey found that 32% opposed a temporary-worker program, while 59% favored one. Major unions back the proposal as a way to bring exploited workers out of the shadows to press for labor rights ó and union membership. Some union members, however, fret that business owners are using immigrants to drive down wages. Richard Salinas, for instance, is a Los Angeles roofer with Local 36 of the United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers and Allied Workers. A second-generation Mexican American, Salinas says many contractors are hiring nonunion laborers ó many of them undocumented immigrants ó for less than half the $30-an-hour union rate, no benefits and no scheduled wage increases.

The idea of more guest workers worries him, he says. "If they're just trying to get foreign cheap labor, I'm against that," Salinas says. "These [immigrants] are very hard-working people, but my concern is the wages and contractors turning to them instead of union shops." Salinas' concerns are borne out by some research. Harvard University professor George J. Borjas, the nation's leading labor economist on immigration, has found that the immigrant influx between 1980 and 2000 lowered wages of American high school dropouts by 7.4%, for an annual loss of $1,800 on an income of $25,000. The effect was worse for native-born Latinos and blacks, he said.

Overall, he found that all U.S. workers suffered a 3.7% wage decline. "You can't have a huge increase in the labor supply without having an impact on the wage structure," said Cuban-born Borjas, adding that the data had turned around his original, more positive view of immigration. "If one cares about the well-being of the less advantaged, having a guest-worker program to import hundreds of thousands of workers is a huge mistake," he said. Giovanni Peri, an economist with UC Davis, says he believes that immigration doesn't help less-educated American workers ó he found their wages dropped by 2% ó but that it does benefit most of Americans by making goods and services cheaper.

Some unions argue that the solution to falling wages isn't to keep out immigrants but to organize them. One oft-cited example is the janitorial field. The Service Employees International Union, which represents 1.8 million service workers in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico, has been highly successful in reorganizing janitors around the nation. In Los Angeles, for instance, most janitors were unionized African Americans making middle-class wages until the mid-1980s, according to Mike Garcia, president of the SEIU's Local 1877, which covers California.

But building owners and labor contractors broke the unions, replaced black janitors with largely undocumented workers from Mexico and Central America and drove wages down to the bare minimum with no benefits, he said. In 1987, the union launched a "Justice for Janitors" campaign to reorganize the workers. After nearly two decades of aggressive tactics, the union represents 85% of Los Angeles janitors, compared with 20% when the campaign began, Garcia says. Union jobs pay $11 an hour with fully paid benefits, compared with $8 an hour before the union's strike in 2000, he says. "Once you reorganize, wages rise for everybody: the documented and undocumented, native-born and immigrant," said Eliseo Medina, SEIU executive vice president.

Garcia said now that the union has negotiated higher wages, its largely Latino members are planning to seek contractual language guaranteeing African Americans at least 12% of janitorial jobs, reflecting their presence in the population, Garcia said. The hotel workers union last year negotiated similar guarantees for black workers. Still, Garcia remains uneasy about the guest-worker program. "Employers are pushing for guest workers because they want to legalize low wages and no benefits," he said. "If employers pay decent wages, and if the country allows free and open unionization Ö it will eliminate the need for immigrant labor."

Business groups, however, don't see it that way. Three dozen trade associations have formed the Essential Worker Immigration Coalition, based in Washington, D.C., to press for more guest workers.

In testimony before Congress, industry leaders say good-paying jobs, including those in welding, roofing, nursing and construction, are going wanting. A legal guest-worker program would "level the playing field," said Laura Reiff, coalition co-chairwoman. "It's hard now for our members to compete against the bad actors." On a recent morning at the state Employment Development Department on Crenshaw Boulevard, the mostly African American job seekers anxiously surfed the Internet, made phone calls and collected fliers touting job-training opportunities.

Damon Metters, 42, lost his full-time hours cleaning a bowling alley and quit a security firm after, he said, it failed to pay him. Anthony Brooks, 22, hasn't been able to find work since his seasonal job at Old Navy ended in December. Both men have high school educations and want full-time jobs that pay at least $10 an hour, perhaps as janitors, warehouse workers, supermarket staff. Many employers are offering only part-time hours without benefits, and that, they said, doesn't cover monthly bills.

Metters said he doesn't know how to search for jobs and apply for them online. Metters is surviving on a monthly $132 welfare check, food stamps and the good graces of his father, who has offered him lodging. Brooks is living in a homeless shelter. News of the guest-worker plan brings strong reactions from both men. "No!" Brooks said. "Why don't they let us have the jobs?"

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