Daniel Henninger wrote a piece called "How About Amnesty for the Market?" in today's Wall Street Journal
Chairman Pullen responded to tha article via e-mail:
Dear Mr. Henninger,
I read your column in the Thursday WSJ and agreed with your conclusion that the new immigration bill is bad but for different reasons. As a Republican, I take umbrage at your trying to use a free-market argument against Republicans. Based on the latest statistics from the DOL, the unemployment rate for unskilled workers with no high school diploma is 7.2%, while the rate for those with a high school diploma or higher is 3.1%. We do not appear to have a shortage of unskilled uneducated workers. Add to this number the illegal aliens out of work and it makes a bad situation even worse for those in our country who are at the bottom rung of the economic ladder.
What is clear is we need more educated and skilled workers in the U.S. A guestworker program that increases the number of such workers would be good for the U.S. at all levels: social, economic and political. This is certainly a Republican free-market idea that is opposed by labor unions and Democrat party leaders. Unfortunately for us, Democrats in Congress are holding such free market ideas captive to their demands to legalize an underclass of unskilled and uneducated workers and their families.
I also watched the video on your editorial board meeting and agreed with much of what John Fund and Steve Moore were saying. Maybe it takes two bills or maybe three. One to commit to securing the border. The vast majority of Americans want this accomplished for a number of good reasons which are well known. A second bill to deal with the need for more skilled, educated guestworkers whether permanent or temporary and a third addressing how to deal with those who are illegally here. These bills do not have to be part of a grand compromise and would allow all Americans to see where their elected leaders are on these issues.
Sincerely,
Randy Pullen
Chaiman, Arizona Republican Party
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