Jim Kouri, who amongst other things is an officer of the National Association of Chiefs of Police, has an interesting essay on The Common Voice website Many Police Disenchanted with President Bush on Immigration -July 22 2006.

During the last presidential campaign cycle, many national and local police organizations, as well as individual officers and commanders, supported the reelection of George W. Bush…

But now there’s increasing disenchantment with President Bush on his handling of illegal immigration and border security. More and more police agencies find themselves engulfed in crimes being committed by illegal aliens…

“The problem has gotten worse and worse each year and the only people debating the subject [of illegal immigration] are American citizens. The politicians — local, state and federal — ignore the will of the people,” says one police chief who’s own mayor is pro-open borders.

With one or two notable exceptions, Police Chiefs, probably fearing retribution from local politicians, have kept out of the immigration debate, or actively tried to dodge involvement. This comment, from a presumably well-informed source, is encouraging. One hopes to hear more on the subject from Jim Kouri

Applaud Jim Kouri

Mickey Kaus asks

Rocky Balboa, I.D. Please! At a well-attended Zocalo public forum on immigration in L.A. on Wednesday, prominent attorney/activist Connie Rice asserted confidently that one thing the experts agree on is that Americans aren’t willing to take meatpacking-plant jobs. Is that right? … 12:14 P.M.

Nope. There are no industries which are entirely in the hands immigrants. It’s just that mass immigration lowers wages, displaces workers, and after a certain tipping point, may discourage workers from working in a largely Hispanic plant or industry. But all these industries have a huge majority of still-employed Amerians. But here are some figures from the American Meat Institute.

According to a recent American Meat Institute survey of members, 69 percent of the industry workforce is comprised of Caucasians; 10 percent is black; 19 percent is Hispanic; two percent is Asian and less than one percent is Native American. The survey also showed that five percent of the workforce overall is comprised of noncitizen workers.

In some regions of the country, like along the U.S.-Mexican border, these percentages tend to be higher, especially for Hispanic workers. One major company has a plant based in Illinois where 10 percent of its workforce is Hispanic, while the workforce in one of its Texas plants is 85 percent Hispanic.[PDF]

Ed Rubenstein recently wrote a National Data piece, Looking (in vain) for “Jobs Americans Won’t Do” which gave figures for the some of the most heavily affected industries the figures look like this:

• drywall/ceiling tile installers, 27%
• landscaping services, 26%
• roofers, 21%
• maids and housekeepers, 22%
• animal slaughter and processing, 20%

So, no, it’s not right. There are almost no jobs Americans won’t do, it’s just that some industries won’t pay the wages Americans want.