Polls, leaders say many blacks support illegal immigrants Leslie Fulbright, Chronicle Staff Writer
Influential African Americans across the country back up recent polls showing strong black support for illegal immigrants and for Senate proposals to offer them work permits and a path to citizenship.
Although polls show frustration in black communities over a perceived loss of low-wage jobs to illegal immigrants, they also indicate the issue is not dampening African Americans' sympathy with the struggles of Latinos, who make up the vast majority of recent immigrants to the United States.
Jobs and immigration are separate issues for blacks, although some analysts have seized on findings such as Pew Hispanic Center's in March that one-third of African Americans it polled feel immigrants take jobs away from Americans.
"The debate is being used to divide," the Rev. Jesse Jackson said in a telephone interview Wednesday.
Bernard Anderson, a black economist and professor at the University of Pennsylvania who has been quoted in newspaper articles about the impact of immigrants, said there is no question illegal immigration has reduced employment opportunities at the low end of the service sector.
But immigration is not a viable wedge issue, he said.
"The choice is to line up with right-wing reactionary forces under the claim that their action will benefit African Americans," Anderson said. "But those are the same forces that have been hell-bent on opposing civil rights, affirmative action and government programs for the less fortunate."
The NAACP, the Urban League, other major black organizations and such influential African Americans as Sen. Barak Obama, D-Ill., have voiced strong support for legislation to help illegal immigrants.
Jackson said the jobs that blacks have lost have disappeared altogether or been outsourced.
"Our middle-class automotive jobs, our shipyard jobs, our steel and textile jobs did not go to undocumented workers," Jackson said. "Those jobs were exported."
Nationally, unemployment among African Americans was 9.7 percent in 2005 but 4.3 percent among whites and 6 percent among Hispanics; all three rates fell slightly from 2004, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Only the poorest and least-skilled blacks lose ground to immigrants, legal or illegal -- just as the least-skilled members of any ethnic group lose out when the pool of unskilled labor increases, analysts said.
Steven Camarota, director of research with the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, said the poorest 15 percent of all people in the labor market face job competition from illegal immigrants, usually Latinos.
"Unfortunately, you find a lot of employers who are prejudiced (against blacks) and prefer immigrants, saying they are better workers, have more efficient hiring networks, and they work off the books," Camarota said. "If you didn't have the immigrant labor, that wouldn't happen."
Black freelance columnist Earl Ofari Hutchinson said discrimination creates "black fury" and opposition to immigrant rights.
"There is sentiment from the African American community that we are losing ground, and the blame is placed on illegal immigration," Hutchinson said. "There is a huge disconnect between what the black leadership says and the average folk thinks."
Al Norman, a 59-year-old plumbing contractor in San Francisco's Bayview district considers himself one of those average folks. And he agrees with half of Hutchinson's observation.
"People in my community feel their kids don't have jobs because of cheap labor, especially in the construction industry," Norman said. "We see it all the time."
But the other half -- the assertion repeated in numerous media reports and commentaries this month that African Americans blame immigrants -- is off base, Norman said. And his view is in line with recent polls.
"We still sympathize with the immigrants," he said.
The Field Poll in California released Wednesday showed 82 percent of blacks support offering undocumented workers the opportunity to become citizens, while 76 percent of Latinos and 74 percent of whites took that position.
Rick Callender, president of the San Jose branch of the NAACP, said the idea that blacks are particularly hurt by the competition for America's lowest-paying jobs is insulting.
"Since when did these become black jobs?" Callender asked. "I don't know where people are getting this idea that African Americans believe immigrants are taking our jobs."
Like Jackson, analysts such as UC Berkeley economist Steven Pitts said the culprits are employers, not immigrants.
"The reality is that with or without immigrants, a major detriment of black job outcomes is the issue of racism in the labor market," Pitts said. "When people talk about immigrants taking black jobs, it places the onus on the workers and not the employers.
"People who are in crisis with low wages, crime and poor education look for scapegoats, and the new ones are immigrants, but they are not the source of the problem."
The loss of jobs is the result of an unjust economy, said the Rev. Amos Brown, president of the San Francisco chapter of the NAACP.
"African Americans know that Hispanics need to get their daily bread and take care of themselves," Brown said. "Some of us still need to evolve to the social and moral level of understanding that you don't have to put someone else down in order to succeed."
A poll by the Pew Research Center in March reported that although blacks were more likely than whites -- 33 percent compared to 25 percent -- to say they believe immigrants take jobs from Americans, blacks also were less likely than whites to say that immigration should be cut back.
"My experience working in the Rainbow Coalition is that there is a tremendous amount of common ground between African American and immigrant rights communities," said Pamela H. David, executive director of the Elise and Walter Haas Sr. Fund and a former San Francisco community development director. "I think the argument is a red herring."
Jackson said that the Confederate South "organized whites against blacks on the basis of economic fear, saying we were going to take their jobs. Now with undocumented workers, the same thing is being said to blacks."