Immigrants' allies on right: The business end of conservatism can act as a check against xenophobia.

[pampango]

http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/119232519.html

Conservative Utah has bucked the national GOP trend of embracing hard-line - and arguably inhumane - laws meant to make states inhospitable to illegal immigrants. Two weeks ago, Utah Gov. Gary R. Herbert signed into law a bill that will grant work permits, and a path to legal residence, to undocumented immigrants and their immediate families. And conservative Arizona, which last year passed the anti-immigrant law known as S.B. 1070, defeated a second slate of such measures, including one that sought to deny birthright citizenship to the U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants.

But cool pragmatism is the right antidote for passionate bigotry. In fact, despite all the time and energy Americans spend praising the wonders of tolerance and the virtues of inclusion, bottom-line values have throughout our history done about as much to fight bigotry as has any particular brand of high-minded moralism.

"The profit motive helped undermine racial restrictions that were used to keep blacks out of certain neighborhoods. In her 2010 book The Warmth of Other Suns, about the migration of African Americans to the North, Isabel Wilkerson argues that efforts to keep blacks out of Harlem, and later some parts of Los Angeles, failed "not because anti-black forces gave up or grew more tolerant," but because property owners had a choice: Either maintain a whites-only policy in a market being deserted by whites, or take advantage of the rising black demand. Most wound up taking the pragmatic route."

Utah saw the economic damage Arizona did to itself with S.B. 1070. The law, which prods police to question those they stop about their immigration status, drew boycotts and cost the state millions of dollars in tourism and convention business. As for Arizona, with five more virulently anti-immigrant measures up for consideration, 60 state business leaders sent a letter asking the Legislature not to make matters worse.

[NoBlueDogs]

1. Business just likes to exploit cheap labor.

n/t

[Edweird]

2. Un Rec for the usual race-to-the-bottom anti-labor garbage.

Conservatives love cheap labor and illegal
immigrants' "business plan" is centered around
undercutting US labor. You should be ashamed of
yourself for posting this trash in light of
what's going on in Wisconsin and the rest
of the country right now.