Liberal Talk Radio

Somewhere in Southern California, Mickey Kaus smiles:

The federal government’s civil rights commission is attempting to produce a definitive answer to one of the touchiest questions in the immigration debate: whether new immigrants, especially illegal ones, hurt African-Americans in the workplace.

The hearing Friday is likely to be a lively discussion among the country’s top experts on the issue, as the commission seeks to come to a final conclusion in a debate that has churned out what seem like unexpected and incongruent opinions from both sides of the political divide.

Illegal immigration foes will try to convince the commission that the federal government should protect black workers from competition. On the other side of the debate, left-leaning immigration and labor experts will likely downplay the difficulties facing African-Americans as they argue that competition from illegal immigrants is largely insignificant.

“The purpose is to help inform the debate, to provide recommendations to the White House,” one of the commissioners, Peter Kirsanow, said.