Cheesecake Factory, Hallmark, Disney, and Others Now Pushing Amnesty

By Jon Feere on September 11, 2013

Officials representing over 100 corporate interests issued a letter to Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) demanding the legalization of 11 million illegal aliens and increased legal immigration through the creation of new visa programs. As these companies put it in their letter:

[W]e strongly support efforts to bolster the availability of a workforce at all skills levels, through a separate visa program as well as by creating a path to legal status for those already here.

The companies include well-known names like Hallmark Cards, Disney, CVS, the Cheesecake Factory, American Airlines, Wendy's, McDonald's, the Olive Garden, Red Lobster, Coca-Cola, T-Mobile, AT&T, UPS, Rubbermaid, and McCormick spices — just to name a few examples.

These companies cite a recent Congressional Budget Office report, arguing that the Senate bill would grow the economy. They conveniently left out the CBO estimate that even though the amnesty might make the economy larger, it would simultaneously make American workers poorer by lowering the wages of American workers for a decade or more. The companies claim the bill is an "opportunity to level the playing field for U.S. employers" but it is more of an effort to level the wages of American citizens.

It is difficult to understand how these companies can feel justified in demanding the importation of cheap labor with a straight face at a time when tens of millions of Americans are unemployed. The number of working-age (16 to 65) native-born Americans who are not working — unemployed or out of the labor market — stood at 57.5 million in the second quarter of 2013. The unemployed population is spread throughout the labor market and includes 25 million with no more than a high school education, 16 million with some education beyond high school, and nine million with at least a bachelor's degree.

The letter is available online. The names of the companies pushing to amnesty illegal aliens, double legal immigration, and undermine immigration law enforcement are listed here:

The Cheesecake Factory, Inc.
CVS Caremark Corporation
Hallmark Cards, Inc.
McDonald's Corporation
The Wendy's Company
The Walt Disney Company
The Coca-Cola Company
Johnson & Johnson
American Express Company
21st Century Fox
Darden Restaurants, Inc (Olive Garden, Red Lobster, and others)
Liberty Mutual Group, Inc.
Allstate Insurance Company
Western Union
Northwestern Mutual
American Airlines Inc.
Motorola Solutions, Inc.
The Procter & Gamble Company (wide range of well-known home and beauty brands)
Newell Rubbermaid Inc.
AT&T Inc.
T-Mobile USA, Inc.
Caterpillar Inc.
The ADT Corporation
Pfizer Inc.
Hewlett-Packard Company
United Parcel Service, Inc.
General Electric Company
Verizon Communications Inc.
Marriott International, Inc.
Hilton Worldwide
Hyatt Hotels Corporation
McCormick & Company, Inc.
Cisco Systems, Inc.
Quest Diagnostics Incorporated
Eaton
E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company
BNSF Railway Company
Shell Oil Company
General Mills, Inc. (many well-known food brands)
Ingram Industries Inc.
Kronos Incorporated
Ingersoll Rand Company
General Parts Inc.
Merck & Co., Inc.
United Technologies Corporation
Harris Corporation
Illinois Tool Works Inc.
Sears Holdings Corporation
USG Corporation
Archer Daniels Midland Company
Johnson Controls, Inc.
Ally Financial Inc.
US Foods
Univar, Inc.
Kiewit Corporation
Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.
W.W. Grainger, Inc.
Avery Dennison Corporation
Humana Inc.
Novelis, Inc.
The Williams Companies, Inc.
Avaya Inc.
Computer Sciences Corporation
Honeywell International Inc.
International Paper Company
Dover Corporation
Danaher Corporation
TRW Automotive
Analog Devices, Inc.
Ecolab, Inc.
Avnet, Inc.
White Lodging Corporation
Coca-Cola Enterprises, Inc.
Simon Property Group
Daikin McQuay Americas
Continental Grain Company
MSC Industrial Direct Co., Inc.
Hospira, Inc.
Cigna Corporation
The ServiceMaster Company
Automatic Data Processing, Inc.
Bloomin' Brands Inc.
Fiserv, Inc.
Carolinas HealthCare System
SRA International
Emerson
Rockwell Automation, Inc.
Parker Hannifin Corporation
Saint-Gobain Corporation
General Dynamics Corporation
A. O. Smith Corporation
Praxair, Inc.
HCA Inc.
Eastman Chemical Company
ManpowerGroup
Fifth Third Bank
Pitney Bowes Inc.
Express Scripts, Inc.
Cardinal Health, Inc.
Aleris International, Inc.
DTE Energy Company
U.S. Steel Corporation
Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corporation
Cargill, Incorporated
Assurant, Inc.
XL Global Services, Inc
Texas Instruments Incorporated
ATK
WESCO International