Three members of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights urged the Congressional Black Caucus to consider how the immigration proposal could cause black Americans to lose job opportunities.

“The obvious question is whether there are sufficient jobs in the low-skilled labor market for both African-Americans and illegal immigrants,” USCCR members Peter Kirsanow, Abigail Thernstrom, and Gail Heriot in a letter sent today to Congressional Black Caucus chairwoman Marcia Fudge, D-Ohio. “The answer is no.”

The Congressional Black Caucus is supporting the immigration reform push. “[Immigration reform] is the civil and human rights issue of our generation, just like the civil rights issues of the ’60s that was fought by African-Americans, and the civil rights issue of women before it,” Rep. Steven Horsford, D-Nev., said on the House floor earlier this year. Last week, Horsford participated in a CBC forum at Howard University that discussed “assumptions about the impact immigration reform will have on African Americans, which have led to tensions in communities and on college campuses.”