When a friend sent me a pair of opinion pieces about Rhode Island legislators contemplating an Arizona-like bill for that state, I was amazed that it would even be considered in what most of us assume is a Far Left state.   I’ll let you read the pieces.   The first was written in May by Bill Shuey who is the director of the International Institute of Rhode Island, an immigrant and refugee-service organization funded mostly by the taxpayer.*   And, then the editor of the paper, The Providence Journal, responds.

Readers please recall that we have written on many occasions about how the refugee resettlement contractors (the International Institutes are sub-contractors to the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, one of the top ten federal contractors) are spending time and money lobbying for amnesty for illegal aliens while many have been criticized, indeed some have been closed, because they aren’t taking adequate care of the legal refugees assigned to them.  Search RRW for Waterbury, CT and follow the saga there of refugees being neglected by an International Institute.

Here is my theory.  These resettlement contractors’ business will expand exponentially when (if!) amnesty for illegal aliens should come to pass.  I bet at this very minute the Obama Administration is making plans to pour enormous amounts of federal money into these agencies, including Mr. Shuey’s agency, to help the new immigrants learn English, find the welfare office, get on the  list of subsidized housing and find jobs.  Oh, and last but not least they will help the newly legal immigrants get their citizenship in order so that they vote DEMOCRATIC!    Lest I forget, these agencies, like the International Institute, are also the head hunters for big businesses looking for cheap, legal, labor.

I’m digressing.  Read the opinion pieces linked above.  Shuey plays the tired old race card.  And, then in the editor’s response, some interesting points are raised.

He/she raises a point I’ve wondered about too, illegal immigrants compete with legal immigrants and other lower level blue collar workers (often of color) for jobs.  My question to Shuey is, isn’t your first obligation to the legal refugees you are paid by the tax payer to care for?

The editorial then points out how it is these same lower level workers who end up paying the most for illegal immigrants while rich people benefit from cheap maids and lawn care, etc.

The poor pay for the poor!

The residents of these struggling neighborhoods pay most dearly for the public services provided illegal immigrants — not only in property taxes but in crowded schools and hospital emergency rooms.

Illegal immigration amounts to the poor paying for the poor. And it helps stall the upward mobility of blue-collar and even some white-collar workers of all races, many of whom are themselves immigrants.

* Here is a recent Form 990 for the International Institute.  Note that it is 81% funded by you.  Mr. Shuey is busy promoting Open Borders and calling people racists while being paid by the taxpayer.