New York Times Editorial Board Hails Amnesty While Paper Highlights Struggles of Low-Wage US Workers

The New York Times editorial writers may want to read their paper’s own stories about the struggles of low-wage workers in President Barack Obama’s economy before cheerleading Obama’s executive amnesty that grants temporary work permits to millions of illegal immigrants.  

A week after an extensive report on the “vanishing male worker” in America, the Times highlighted Jose Gutierrez, who works as a busboy in Manhattan and makes “about $450 a week when the tips are good.” But his salary is “not enough to keep groceries in the refrigerator” and barely enough to cover his rent. 

According to the Times, one in six people in the city (about 1.4 million people) “could not afford a consistent, adequate supply of food throughout the year during the three-year period from 2011 through 2013, a time of economic recovery.” That figure is “virtually unchanged from the three-year period of 2008 through 2010, which included the Great Recession,” according to federal statistics. 

Critics of Obama’s massive amnesty programs have pointed out that minorities at the bottom of the economic ladder are hurt most when massive numbers of illegal immigrants are given formal work permits. U.S. Civil Rights Commissioner Peter Kirsanow, for instance, has repeatedly emphasized that massive amnesty legislation particularly hurts black American workers.

Martinez’s “heart sank” when his daughter gave him a Christmas list for Santa. Martinez said he “almost died” when he had to tell his daughter that Santa “can carry only so much on his sleigh,” knowing that he could not afford all of the gifts on his daughter’s list.

Though millions of Americans like Martinez are struggling, Obama and the bipartisan political elite want to flood the labor markets with even more illegal immigrants.