I’ll See You in Prison

Robert Fox from the AFL-CIO community affiliate Working America sends us this latest outrage.

Extremist Republicans are revealing their true colors in the debate over the status of undocumented workers in the United States. Rather than permit workers to become citizens or (the horror) raise wages, here is their dream for labor in the United States, as quoted in The New York Times today:

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, Republican of California, dismissed arguments made by President Bush and business leaders who say the United States needs a pool of foreign workers. He said businesses should be more creative in their efforts to find help and suggested that employers turn to the prison population to fill jobs in agriculture and elsewhere.

“Let the prisoners pick the fruits,” Mr. Rohrabacher said. “We can do it without bringing in millions of foreigners.”

In this scenario, large business sectors would presumably have a direct financial interest in locking up workers to gain access to an indentured class of prisoner-employees. Given Washington’s lobbying culture and general standard of Government-by-Auction, you could count on corporate America to push the envelope quickly once such a plan was established.

Rohrabacher’s appalling idea is a reminder of why it is so important to have immigration policies that allow everyone full citizenship rights and worker protections.

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