South Carlina Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer, the GOP gubernatorial hopeful of poor people are like "stray animals" infamy, says the real problem with immigration is "flat-out lazy" American workers who would rather kick back on welfare than take the jobs that brought the immigrants to this country.
As part of his argument, Bauer posed the rhetorical question: "Why do we have so many vacancies [for job openings]?" But as The State (via Ben Smith) points out, South Carolina has a 12.2 percent unemployment rate. That's not because people are lazy -- it's because the economy has been in recession thanks to the Republican policies of the Bush presidency. And now that the job situation is weak, the growth in undocumented immigrants has slowed.
If there's any laziness going on, it's not on the part of American workers: it's coming from American politicians (particularly in the GOP), who have time after time thwarted efforts to reform immigration policies.