Bush Camp Balks at Immigration Change

Tyson Zunkel, from South Africa, leads a row of combines as a custom cutting crew harvests wheat in a field west of Mullinville, Kan. Tuesday, June 19, 2007. Increased regulation of foreign workers have made it more difficult for custom cutters to hire crews for the annual harvest. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel) (Charlie Riedel - AP)

Meanwhile, a paper released Wednesday by the White House's Council of Economic Advisers made the case that immigration has had mostly a positive economic impact on the United States.

For the most part, immigrant workers find employment that tends to complement _ not replace _ the jobs held by workers born in the United States, the paper says. On average, native-born U.S. workers' wages have been boosted as immigrant workers have helped to expand the nation's overall economic pie and thus its wealth by billions of dollars a year, the paper says.

The paper acknowledges the challenges of U.S.-born workers with little education, but adds that "it is safe to conclude that immigration is not a central cause of those difficulties, nor is reducing immigration a well-targeted way to help these low-wage natives."

The report came as a coalition of labor groups announced their vehement opposition to the immigration bill, denouncing it as "anti-worker." Those unions argue that the temporary worker program will create an underclass of guest laborers who could be abused by the employers and denied a fair chance at becoming citizens.

"It creates a situation ripe for exploitation," said Richard L. Trumka, the AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer.

Immigrant-heavy service unions, on the other hand, are supporting the bill, which would swell their ranks.

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Associated Press writer Jeannine Aversa contributed to this report.