On an otherwise dismal day for America's workers, I see a few bright spots that all of us connected to NumbersUSA could make brighter through focused activism this fall.

But the utter hypocrisy and insanity of most of the nation's elites is on full display today as they lament the horrible conditions for American workers who far outnumber the available jobs. That's right, they actually are admitting that we have an oversupply of workers.

There are now nearly 6 workers available for every job opening, up from 1.7 workers per opening when the recession began in December 2007.

-- New York Times editorial, Sep. 4, 2009

But this comes from the editorial board that nearly every week since December 2007 (often twice a week) has ranted about the need for more immigration and the need for the estimated 8 million illegal aliens currently holding jobs to keep their jobs!

While nearly 7 million jobs were disappearing during the 20 months of this recession, those same elites have incessantly called for more immigration to meet what they claimed was a U.S. "worker shortage!"

Hey, just because they are elites, doesn't mean they are logical.

We must use this opportunity to challenge the media and academic elite to choose one: Are we suffering from too many workers and not enough jobs? Or do we have a worker shortage?

Look for the examples of this intellectual dishonesty in your own local media. Then call and write to them, pointing out the logical incongruity of decrying high unemployment while still supporting efforts for "comprehensive immigration reform," which is all about increasing the number of working age foreign adults legally living in this country.

SHORT LIST OF OPTIMISTIC SIGNS

• Good Labor Day Sign No. 1: E-Verify is expanding, and that means opening up to U.S. workers more jobs that illegal aliens otherwise would hold. The Obama Administration either has some commitment to making employers hire legal workers, or it feels forced into a public relations box requiring it to continue enforcement trends already underway, or some of both. For whatever reasons, it appears ready tomorrow (Tuesday) to finally implement the mandate for all federal contractors to run their employees through E-Verify. This could be our side's biggest victory since we beat the DREAM Act Amnesty in the autumn of 2007. Thanks to all of you who have flooded the White House and your own congressional offices with faxes and phone calls urging this E-Verify implementation.
• Good Labor Day Sign No. 2: Most of the country's elites -- certainly the more liberal ones -- are recognizing that the U.S. has an oversupply of workers, even if they aren't acknowledging that immigration policies play a role. All of us have an easier job of making the case for immigration reductions when the elites at least acknowledge that we have far more workers than we have jobs.
• Good Labor Day Sign No. 3: A few of the media elites are actually starting to question the wisdom of giving a shrinking number of jobs to foreign workers. The national Christian Science Monitor is connecting the dots very nice recently. Even USA Today is finding it can't totally ignore the obvious connections. Our NumbersUSA media team is gradually finding more receptivity to our message among reporters across the country.

'COMPREHENSIVE IMMIGRATION REFORM' means COMPREHENSIVE IMMIGRATION INCREASES

What all of us champions of America's workers and their families must do every day this fall is remind the media, the think tanks and our elected officials that they will no longer be allowed to hide the truth behind phrases like "comprehensive immigration reform."

The issue every day is whether the federal government is going to follow our comprehensive proposal to stop importing working-age immigrants. Or will the feds increase the rate of importing competitors for U.S. jobs (which is what "comprehensive immigration reform" would do).

. . . employers shed jobs for the 20th straight month, the Labor Department said.

-- Washington Post, "Economic Growth Yet to Hit Job Market" by Neil Irwin, Sep. 5, 2009

6.9 million payroll jobs were eliminated during those 20 months.

Guess what your federal government was doing each of those months, on average:

The feds gave out permanent work permits (green cards) and temporary work visas to an average of 125,000 NEW foreign workers each of those 20 months! (Click here to see my video explaining the credibility of that number.)

MEDIA ARE NOTICING THE JOBLESS STATS THAT NUMBERSUSA HAS BEEN TOUTING

It is with no small sense of satisfaction that today I see media all over the country talking about the statistics that we at NumbersUSA have been screaming about all year.

Harold Meyerson -- a pro-immigration-increase nationally syndicated columnist -- said today:

The problems facing workers pre-date, and are more profound than, the recession, as three important surveys released last week show.

Young workers are unemployed in record numbers -- 25% of teenagers, or about 1.6 million are without work, the highest since 1948, when tracking data by age began. But the lot of employed workers under age 35 is dismal, too, as a survey conducted by Peter Hart Research for the AFL-CIO makes clear. Thirty-one percent are uninsured -- up from 24% a decade ago. Just 31% say that they make enough money to put some aside, down from 52% in 1999.

-- Harold Meyerson, "Unhappy Labor Day"

And the New York Times noted how badly some ethnic groups are doing:

And unemployment is on the rise, jumping from 9.4% in July to 9.7% in August. For several demographic groups, the unemployment rate is already in double digits, including men (10.1%), Hispanics (13%), African-Americans (15.1%) and teenagers (25.5%). In all, 14.9 million workers are now jobless, of which fully one-third have been out of work for more than six months, the highest level of long-term unemployment by far in any post World War II recession.

Friends, I am sickened by the human hardship represented by all those bad numbers.

But the fact that so many in the media are focusing on these bad numbers that we have known about for so long is a great opportunity for us.

When you deal with any elite -- your clergy, your local newspaper, your Members of Congress, the heads of your union local, the leaders of your environmental groups, local college professors -- start with the horrible job stats above that are widely noted by national elites.

Then ask a simple question:

Does it make sense -- will it help unemployed Americans -- for the federal government to continue to hand out 125,000 permanent and temporary work permits each month to foreign workers?

This autumn is the time for Congress to suspend most immigration.

Surely, we can see the logic and morality in that on this most dreary of Labor Days.

ROY BECK is CEO & Founder of NumbersUSA