U.S. blacks claim immigration bias

WASHINGTON, May 4 (UPI) -- Black leaders in the United States claim Hispanics get preferential immigration treatment and more tolerance as illegal workers, The Washington Times reports.

William Spriggs, chairman of Howard University's School of Economics and a senior fellow with the Economic Policy Institute offered Haitians as an example.

"We've told Haiti ... if you put them on a boat we will send them back. But for Mexico it's OK," Spriggs said.

In addition, illegal aliens from Cuba are usually released as they apply for refugee status, while those from Haiti and other nations are jailed, the newspaper said.

U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said blacks don't buy the rhetoric used to support a guest-worker program for illegal immigrants already in the United States.

"The most insulting thing you hear is that (immigrants) are doing jobs that we won't do ... as if the idea is that if we won't do a back-breaking job for $5.15 an hour without protections -- healthcare, workers' compensation -- (it) means we are shiftless and lazy. That is simply an insult," Thompson told the Post.