Gainor: Immigration taking us for a ride

There you’ll find experts on one of the most contentious issues facing our nation — immigration. Their breadth of knowledge and experience will astound you.

Naturally, I don’t mean Capitol Hill.

To really understand the immigration battle, hop in a cab.

I love talking to cab drivers and limo drivers. They work hard and deal with hundreds of people each day. Cab drivers are my favorite — probably because my father drove part-time when I was young.

In D.C., many of those cabbies weren’t born in the United States. Many are citizens who work hard, pay tons of taxes and have strong opinions. Don’t get them talking politics unless you expect to hear strong views. And don’t get them talking immigration unless you want an earful.

An earful opposed to illegal immigration.

Many cab drivers came to America legally and worked very hard to do so. They are right to expect others to do the same.

Somehow neither presidential candidate has the same clarity. A June 8 Associated Press story explained that Sens. John McCain (sort-of-R-Ariz.) and Barack Obama (D-Left Field) “support giving legal status to millions of illegal immigrants.”

Both candidates are too craven to challenge illegal immigrants because they fear alienating (there’s an ironic word) Hispanics. The candidates can’t discuss giving amnesty to 12 million illegals without offending voters on the other side either.

That means the only place where you can get an honest discussion of the issue is in a cab. One driver told me recently how he had waited nearly 10 years to come here from Africa. Another moved to our shores from the Caribbean. He strongly supported building a wall along the Rio Grande. Others complained about the sense of entitlement noncitizens seem to have for rights only citizens should have.

This isn’t just a national issue or even a national security issue. It’s a major business concern. Companies want the cheap labor illegals bring over the border. Unions want new members, so they actually benefit if employers take advantage.

But workers lose out on jobs or have their wages cut because employers know they can always find someone cheaper. It also costs businesses as they expand to a multilingual workplace. Several local stores now list prices in two languages and stress hiring multilingual workers — thanks to our national non-policy on illegal immigration.

Obama would claim I am practicing “xenophobia” because I don’t embrace illegal immigration. He said the very word at a recent event. McCain would probably just shrug and hope the issue would go away.

It’s not. President Bush is getting tough on illegal immigration now that he is the lamest of ducks. Workplace crackdowns have increased and he just ordered “contractors and others who do business with the federal government to make sure their employees can legally work in the U.S.,” according to The Associated Press.

And the only ones who will discuss the issue are cab drivers. After years of tipping drivers, it’s time to take a tip from them and stop catering to illegal immigrants.

Dan Gainor is T. Boone Pickens Fellow at the Media Research Center’s Business & Media Institute. He can be reached at gainorcolumn@gmail.com.