‘Amnesty Woes Snag Trade’

Well, we did it . . . and already we’re regretting it.

After Howard Ezell and his INS alarmists convinced Congress America was being “invaded” by illegal aliens, Congress passed a tough new law cracking down on employers hiring undocumented job seekers.

Now, it turns out, the only ones we’ve hurt are ourselves. California farmers can’t harvest their fruit for want of workers, L.A.’s garment industry is cutting output and working mothers cannot find affordable live-in help. Yes, we cracked down, all right--on the very workers that have helped this state to prosper.

Sure, employers could raise wages high enough to attract legal workers (would U.S. citizens really be willing to pick strawberries at any rate?). Will consumers, however, be willing or able to pay the higher prices that must result? Not to mention foreign markets, which yearly buy huge amounts of California produce--as long as it is reasonably priced. Certainly this new law will make our trade deficit even worse--at the very time our farms and factories need every competitive edge that they can muster.

As food costs rise, farmers go under, factories relocate abroad and career women are jailed for hiring “illegal” live-ins to watch their children (under the law, this can happen), we must ask ourselves--is anyone really benefitting from employer sanctions?

About the only people benefitting will be bureaucrats and lawyers . . . and California already has more than enough of those!

CHRIS NORBY

Fullerton