Illegal Immigration - isn't this just another way to stick it to working

[LynneSin]

class folks like you and me.

Let's be honest - our fruits & vegetables are cheap because of illegal immigration. These folks are brought in to gatherthe produce and unfortunately they're paid for at rates much lower than what our minimum wages are set at.

So, we create a bill that'll pretty much make illegal immigration illegal and for some reason these people are shipped back home. Next thing you'll know the price of produce will skyrocket AND farms will start going belly-up because they can't afford to hire the help needed to cost-effectively pick their produce and even more produce will have to be shipped in from overseas.

It's a damn crappy situtation all already where you are damned if you do and damned if you don't.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. I dunno

I've picked fruit, as have many of my neighbors, and I haven't seen the blueberry farmer go belly up yet. I think you can pay a viable wage, and Americans WILL work.

[ellenfl]

2. not necessarily . . .

i was watching a show on pbs that debunked that premise. the idea was that low wage workers were keeping farmers from technological advances. also, they showed that the price of produce would go up only slightly.

ellen fl

[converted_democrat]

3. Not true.. My father owns farm implement dealerships.. There are very

few fruits and veggies that can't be picked by machine..

[wiley]

4. Actually, it will create an even larger class of American working poor

especially among those who compete for crappy minimum wage jobs. The majority of workers are cleaners, gardeners and yard workers, painters, construction cleanup, house workers, maids, and cooks. Some pick fruits and vegetables. There are illegal immigrants from MANY countries, like Ireland, Italy, France, African countries, Dominicans, South American countries, Asia, etc. The price of oil is going to continue to increase the price of all household goods, don't blame people willing to take seasonal jobs picking vegetables. Farmers are paid by the US govt to destroy more food, including dairy, in the US to keep the prices stable. This keeps out much cheaper foreign grown fruits and vegetables. Either way, the corporations that run this country and the federal government WILL continue to stick it to the working class. Of course certain states and people are freaking out about those immigrants using services in their states. The Repukes BUTCHERED health care financing for the poor and working uninsured. States are looking to eliminate health care services to the poor because they are not receiving the money to even provide for "Americans". The BABY has already been drowned! The working class and the elderly and the poor and the middle class are just realizing the implications.

Blaming Illegal Immigrants isn't going to hide or change what the Bush administration has done to this country.

[mohinoaklawnillinois]

5. Your second paragraph sums this debate up perfectly...

Thank you for a voice of reason among the mindlessness..

:yourock: :yourock: :yourock:

[sallyseven]

6. Fine the employeers for every illegal worker

they hire.

[wiley]

8. Wouldn't it be easier to just increase workers' wages and provide

basic accomodations like bathroom facilities, clean water, 8 hour work days with a break for food and at least one sick day a year and see who really wants these jobs? It's just too easy for Repukes to say that Blacks, for example, are too lazy and uninterested in working, instead of unable to live on the wages these jobs provide. Why don't we stop giving ridiculous tax breaks to the ultra wealthy and spend that money on really educating children and young adults in this country, and provide them some real chance to raise a family and live a decent life.

It might be a better idea to fine parents for letting their children watch too much TV and play video games before they can read. Because maybe that will wake up people to the reality that a country that doesn't provide resources for child care and good teachers is failing them. We can be a Nanny state when it comes to providing everything a corporation needs to make its' investors money, but a heartless let the strongest survive when it comes to nourishing the people of this country to be their best.

[NNN0LHI]

7. Maybe if we stopped diverting the Colorado river to grow produce here...

...the Mexicans could then grow produce in their own country and then they wouldn't have to come here to pick produce.

Don

[blondeatlast]

15. I bet an awful lot of people aren't aware of that very salient point.

It's a good one that gets easily overlooked.

[Ksec]

9. The cost of labor is minute in the final costs of vegetables

Its something like single digit percent of the total costs of most products. Thats overblown.

If you paid 10 bucks an hour, Ill pick your vegetables. This nonsense that Americans wont do these jobs is just that nonsense. They wont do them because theyve been undercut by cheap labor. Much the way the Chinese now own all our factories, the people who come here keep wages down , because they cannot speak up for fear of immigration problems.

Let them come legally, and join in this country on a level playing feild with everyone. If we keep hiring illegals to do the work we used to do, that brings wages down for everyone. The only one who wins are the wealthiest

[PsN2Wind]

10. Corporate America

Out-source the jobs you can and import labor for those you can't.
It means that the competition is greater for the jobs that are left, then the supply and demand thing in kicks and we are all working for peanuts.

[Cleita]

11. In the first place the price of your produce isn't set because of

the cost of labor. It's set by the availability and demand for those crops. A bumper crops brings lower prices and a blighted crop will raise the price because of the scarcity.

When Cesar Chavez formed the farm workers unions getting the workers almost twice minimum wage then, efficiency improved because the workers were happier with their wages. The produce didn't go up in price. This is a historical fact. You can look it up.

Cheap labor only increases the profits made by the corporate farming operations. It does not increase the price of your food.

[Ksec]

13. The past two min wage hikes havent raised prices neither

What you wrote is true.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

12. Another good argument for amnesty.

[Ksec]

14. Or coming here legally

Granting amnesty would only assure millions more would flood in and thats what the corporations want.

[Jim Warren]

16. IMO, there isn't an economy in the world that could withstand

the import of 12+ million (wife is Mexican and she thinks closer to 20M) low (or otherwise) wage workers thrust fairly quickly into the workplace without some serious long term impact. I know there has been a load of very emotional argument with this issue among progs and Dems.

Ironically, in the end it seems that liberals favoring easing illegal immigration make the case that low-wage republicans wanted all along.