Democratic Convention extolled illegal aliens but avoided any pledges to maintain or increase immigrant worker numbers

On the one hand, Americans watching the Democratic convention this week heard illegal immigration portrayed rather routinely as just another demographic group deserving -- in Rep. Luis Guitierrez' words at the podium -- "the expanding embrace of our democracy and humanity." And in the stock every-four-year media story about the first this and first that kind of person addressing one of the conventions, the "first illegal alien speaker" story was a very bad sign about the national leadership of one of our country's two major parties.

On the other hand, speakers tended to restrict their immigration promises to the 2-3 million younger illegal aliens rather than all officially estimated 11 million. And there was hardly a whisper about any need for more immigrant workers, or even a defense of the million a year we are already taking.

That was pretty good news, indicating that Americans' views against high immigration are getting through to the politicians. I think national Democratic leaders believe most U.S. voters would oppose the idea of favoring immigrant workers (particularly illegal ones) over unemployed Americans. The Democrats were restrained for similar reasons that national Republican leaders were at their convention. That is, with 20 million Americans unable to find a full-time job, extolling filling jobs with foreign workers is not smart politics.

QUESTION IN OUR CONVENTION ADS WAS IGNORED

However, I am convinced that the national leadership of both parties actually DOES prefer filling jobs with foreign workers over unemployed Americans. Because of that, neither convention addressed the question of the ads we ran during both conventions -- and during political debates for nearly a year now. That question is: How can the government justify issuing 1 million new immigrant work visas a year while so many Americans are unemployed?