The Daily Caller's Neil Munro found a juicy series of quotes from Barack Obama's autobiography that shows that the future president agreed with Republicans on why illegal immigrants are bad for the economy.

“[T]here’s no denying that many blacks share the same anxieties as many whites about the wave of illegal immigration flooding our Southern border—a sense that what’s happening now is fundamentally different from what has gone on before,” then-Senator Obama wrote in his 2006 autobiography, “The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream.”

”Not all these fears are irrational,” he wrote.

“The number of immigrants added to the labor force every year is of a magnitude not seen in this country for over a century,” Obama noted. “If this huge influx of mostly low-skill workers provides some benefits to the economy as a whole—especially by keeping our workforce young, in contrast to an increasingly geriatric Europe and Japan—it also threatens to depress further the wages of blue-collar Americans and put strains on an already overburdened safety net.”

If these feel like the words of one of Obama’s opponents, it’s because they’re the exact argument that the president’s critics have been making as he now rushes to announce a sweeping executive order that would give work permits to millions of illegal immigrants in the country.

In the passage, Obama also reveals that he personally feels “patriotic resentment” when he sees Mexican flags at immigration rallies.

“Native-born Americans suspect that it is they, and not the immigrant, who are being forced to adapt” to social changes caused by migration, he said.

“And if I’m honest with myself, I must admit that I’m not entirely immune to such nativist sentiments,” Obama wrote. “When I see Mexican flags waved at pro-immigration demonstrations, I sometimes feel a flush of patriotic resentment. When I’m forced to use a translator to communicate with the guy fixing my car, I feel a certain frustration.”

Obama’s frank statements were written in 2006, as he was eying a run for the presidency.

Those worries are mainstream, according to recent polls. Obama now presides over a very porous southern border, and he’s allowed 130,000 Central American migrants across since October 2013.

"Patriotic resentment"?  Whoo, boy – good thing the media hid that comment from Hispanic voters for two elections.  Otherwise, it's likely the president's share of that vote would have dropped considerably.

There are two things driving the president's policies on illegal immigrants: "making history" and politics.  The latter is obvious.  The president believes that most of these illegals made legal will eventually become voters (legally or illegally) and cast their votes for the Democratic Party.  But what really appeals to the president is the idea that his sweeping executive overreach will be historic and cement his legacy.  Of that, I'm not so sure.  If the president's actions lead to a massive increase in illegal immigration – as many experts predict – he may go down in history for less savory reasons than he might want.

Hat Tip: Ed Lasky