NumbersUSA Launches Ads In Baltimore Asking If Maryland's Leaders Really Believe African Americans Don't Want To Work

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Oct 09, 2012, 09:51 ET

Maryland's Leaders Raising No Objection To Admitting One Million Immigrant Workers Next Year, Despite Three Million Black Americans Unable To Find Jobs

BALTIMORE, Oct. 9, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today, NumbersUSA launched a TV and radio ad blitz in Baltimore, Maryland calling attention to the fact that America's leaders will admit one million immigrant workers next year to take American jobs despite millions of U.S. citizens unable to find work, including more than three million African Americans. In Baltimore, Black Americans are two and a half times more likely to be unemployed than other workers, the second worst ratio in the country. Only two of Maryland's 10 members of Congress have acted to reduce foreign labor competition.

The setting for the TV commercial is a typical American kitchen, where an African American family is cleaning up following a meal. After proclaiming he's "tired of the stereotype that black Americans don't want to work," the father concludes the ad by asking if our leaders continue to admit immigrant workers because "they really believe Black Americans don't want to work."

"Here in the shadow of our nation's capital, in one of the most progressive states in America, why won't Maryland's leaders stand up for minority constituents?" asked Roy Beck, president of NumbersUSA, a non-partisan grassroots organization with more than 1.3 million participants. "Their lack of interest in the incredibly high percentage of Black Americans and Hispanic Americans in Maryland who can't find a job suggests a lot of ugly things about Maryland's leaders' attitudes toward these most vulnerable members of our society, including that they just might not believe these Americans want to work. It's time to reduce mass flows of immigrant workers and make putting all Americans back to work the top priority."

The ad states that three million black Americans can't find a job. That references the broad unemployment category called "U6" by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and includes discouraged workers who tell current population surveys they want a job. The U6 unemployment rate for both Black and Hispanic Americans remains around 20%.

Despite record unemployment, America continues to admit about one million immigrants a year who also need jobs. Yet leaders from both parties refuse to call for reductions in mass immigration, instead often calling for more.

NumbersUSA advocates for reductions in legal and illegal immigration recommended by the bi-partisan U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform, chaired by the late civil rights champion Barbara Jordan. To learn more or to experience NumbersUSA ads, visit www.NumbersUSA.org.

SOURCE NumbersUSA