Cesar Chavez on immigration

According to Wikipedia's Cesar Chavez entry, Chavez used to report suspected illegal aliens to the INS if they served as temporary replacement workers, or refused to unionize.

"In 1969, Chávez and members of the UFW marched through the Imperial and Coachella Valley to the border of Mexico to protest growers' use of illegal aliens as temporary replacement workers during a strike."

I suspect a lot of the xenophobia and anger which inspires some of these draconian immigration reform bills now floating around Congress stems from immigrants willing to work for sub-minimum wages, thereby driving down wages and job opportunities for others.

But if employers were forced to pay minimum, or prevailing wages to all workers regardless of their immigration status, they would simply hire the best workers to do the job.

Of course, a lot of immigrants get fake Social Security numbers in order to get jobs, and are thereby paid minimum wages, which contribute to the Social Security fund. And surely American citizens are out there who work for wages below the minimum or prevailing wage.

Globalization does not just apply to multinational corporations. It can be embraced by labor and service unions.