Look Who's Backing An End to Immigrant Bashing: The Chamber of Commerce

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

I almost choked on my Cheerios this morning reading this report on yesterday's May Day rallies in the LA Times:

"At a May Day news conference, Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce President Gary Toebben said the government should concentrate its limited resources and enforcement efforts on those companies with a clear history of exploitation of workers.

Toebben was joined by Jack Kyser, chief economist for the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp., which released a study showing that tens of thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in revenue could be lost if continued raids force businesses to flee the state.

The study analyzed three industries thought to employ high numbers of immigrant workers -- fashion, food processing and furniture manufacturing -- and found that about 10,000 businesses created nearly 500,000 direct and indirect jobs and produced $18.3 billion in wages in 2006. If 15% of those firms left the region would lose nearly 75,000 jobs, the report found.

"We can't afford any more of these raids," Kyser said, adding that recruiters from Washington state and elsewhere have begun aggressively courting businesses to relocate. ..."

These business leaders have figured out what labor leaders and Democratic leaders like Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez have said for years: immigrants are helping our economy, and immigrant-bashing hurts it.

I wonder what Lou Dobbs will have to say about this.

Image courtesy Los Angeles Times.