Thousands March in Washington to Protest Amnesty and Increases in Legal Immigration
The Black American Leadership Alliance hosted a march through Washington D.C. on Monday, protesting the Senate-passed amnesty bill, S.744. Breitbart.com provided live webcasting of the event and estimated around 3,000 people attended. They heard nearly four hours of speeches by Black Alliance leaders and others, including Senators Jeff Sessions and Ted Cruz and Representatives Steve King and Mo Brooks.
The march and rally focused on how amnesty and high immigration levels hurts low-skilled American workers and their wages.
Talk radio show host Wayne Dupree kicked off the march and rally by describing the amnesty bill as nothing more than a special interest bonanza.
"This legislation is nothing but a wish list written by corporate lobbyists and checked off by career politicians in order to exploit cheap labor and fill campaign coffers for the next election," he said. "This legislation robs us of the American dream and it undermines our Democratic process. We the People have been called upon to protect our freedom, and we do this with a smile on our faces and patriotism in our hearts."
Reps. King and Brooks continued with that message.
"Elitists, who want cheap labor to clean their houses and mow their lawn. Then you have power brokers that know that it's cheap votes. And then you have employers of illegal labor who want more cheap labor," Rep. King said.
"They don't care about American jobs; they care about their profits," Rep. Brooks said.
Sen. Session said the Senate bill would drastically increase legal immigration numbers while 20 million Americans can't find a full-time job.
"With all due respect to my good friend Karl Rove and our friend Mark Zuckerburg and the Chamber, there is no shortage of workers in America," Sen. Sessions said. "There's a shortage of jobs in America."
"This is a hammer blow to American families. This is a hammer blow to American families who are hurting in today's job market. It just is. The House must not negotiate with the Senate bill."
Sen. Ted Cruz, who was a vocal opponent of the Senate amnesty bill along with Sen. Sessions, talked about the impact of the bill on minority workers.
"If this bill passes it will increase unemployment: it will increase African American unemployment, Hispanic unemployment, youth unemployment and even legal immigrant unemployment," Sen. Cruz said.
Former Congressman Allen West also spoke at the rally, saying he wished Black Americans followed the immigration bill as closely as they've followed the Trayvon Martin trial in his home state of Florida.
"But now we have a Senate, we have a president, up here on Capitol Hill, that think it's more important to reform people who came here illegally than it is to strengthen the inner cities and strengthen the black community," West said.
For more on the march including a video replay, see the organizer's website at dcmarchforjobs.com.