I've never understood why ALEC and its legislative lackeys are so big on immigration "reform". I thought that the employers of low-skilled workers would want to keep wages as low as they could. A large supply of immigrants guarantees lower wages, and a large supply of illegal immigrants guarantees even lower wages.
An op-ed in today's Star Tribune gave a hint of how one industry really benefits from immigration "reform". Carol Gronfor and three fellow students at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs wrote "Immigration case: Winners and Losers".
"The private prison industry has made billions of dollars by detaining people suspected of illegal immigration under the authority of United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The majority of these people have no criminal record."
Ironically, ICE is fighting the recent Arizona law because it has its own record of abuse of suspected immigrants. ICE is ultimately accountable to the people of the United States. Private prisons are only accountable to their shareholders.
Oh, that's somebody else's worry! Think again. One percent of those detained by ICE are U.S. citizens. See "U.S. citizenship no defense against deportation threat", Paul McEnroe, Star Tribune, 2011-11-27.
