One of the hoariest cliches in the immigration debate is that illegal aliens in the workforce "do the jobs Americans won't do" - hence the need for a general amnesty.
Outgoing Mexican President Vicente Fox said it several times. President Bush has referred to "good, honorable, hardworking people here doing jobs Americans won't do" as he tried to drum up support for his "path to citizenship" immigration reform.
But is the conventional wisdom true?
Last week, as part of a broader identity-theft and illegal-document probe, immigration and customs agents raided Swift & Co. meat-processing plants in six states - rounding up hundreds of illegal workers. Yet the plants managed to stay open - albeit with serious manpower shortages.
What happened next? The Rocky Mountain News reports, "The line of applicants hoping to fill jobs vacated by undocumented workers taken away by immigration agents at the [Greeley, Colo.] plant . . . was out the door."
To be sure, this is but a single anecdote, but there are others - such as the 25,000 who showed up earlier this year to apply for work at Wal-Mart when the retail giant opened a store just outside the Chicago city limits.
Even in this good economy, many Americans are working hard to find jobs.
Yes, most poor immigrants - legal or otherwise - will work hard when they arrive in this country.
But it is a canard - almost a libel on the industriousness of American workers - to blithely say that a liberal immigration policy has little impact on employment or wages because the jobs being taken are ones "Americans won't do."
The sooner that all politicians recognize that fact, the more honest the public debate will become - and the faster across-the-board immigration reform can become law.
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And with THAT attitude, you actually expect anyone to listen to you?