King vs. Hatch: Powerline remembers 1991, when Congress had passed a “comprehensive” immigration amnesty, promising employer sanctions, and then some of the bill’s supporters, including the National Council of La Raza, tried to undo them legislatively once the amnesty had happened. (Sound familiar?) The effort was led by a slippery business-oriented Republican, Senator Hatch (sound familiar?).  It took a letter signed by Coretta Scott King to stop it.

The letter read, in part:

“With roughly seven million people unemployed, and double that number discouraged from seeking work, the removal of employer sanctions threatens to add additional U.S. workers to the rolls of the unemployed. Additionally, it would add to competition for scarce jobs and drive down wages. …

While not a panacea for the nation’s illegal immigration problems, employer sanctions are one necessary means of stopping the exploitation of vulnerable workers and the undercutting of American jobs and living standards.”

Opponents of sanctions were forced to undermine them administratively instead. (Sound familiar?)

As Powerline notes, the major difference between 1991 and now is that there are 11.8 million unemployed instead of seven million. …

House Republicans gathering today to decide what to do about the latest “comprehensive” immigration push might want to remember what King wrote in 1991 and why she had to write it. … If you are near a phone, you might want to remind them. (House phone numbers are here.)