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U.S. workers and taxpayers pay heavy price for illegal immigration (Phyllis Schlafly)
Town Hall ^ | 4/24/2006 | Phyllis Schlafly

Posted on 04/24/2006 4:24:45 PM PDT by HEMICRASHBOX

Illegal immigrants in this country are threatening a massive boycott on May 1, purportedly to demonstrate they are so essential that the U.S. economy would shut down without their labor. On the contrary, such a boycott will expose the lie expressed by President George W. Bush in Cancun, Mexico, that they are "doing work that Americans will not do."

According to the Pew Hispanic Center, illegal immigrants make up less than 5 percent of the U.S. labor force. If every one of the 20 million illegal aliens in our country plays hooky from his job on May 1, the overwhelming majority of those same types of jobs will be worked by millions of U.S. citizens.

All over America, U.S. citizens will flip hamburgers in fast-food shops, wash dishes in restaurants, change sheets in hotels, mow lawns, trim shrubs, pick produce, drive taxis, replace roofs on houses, and do all kinds of construction work. Americans are quite willing to work unpleasant, menial, tiresome and risky jobs, but not for Third World wages.

An employment service in Mobile, Ala., recently received an "urgent request" to fill 270 job openings from contractors who were hired to rebuild and clear areas of Alabama devastated by Hurricane Katrina. The agency immediately sent 70 laborers and construction workers to three job sites.

After two weeks on the job, the men were fired by employers who told them "the Mexicans had arrived" and were willing to work for lower wages. The U.S. citizens had been promised $10 an hour, but the employers preferred Mexicans who would work for less. Employment agency manager Linda Swope told The Washington Times: "When they told the guys they would not be needed, they actually cried ... and we cried with them. This is a shame."

Swope said that employment agencies throughout Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi all face similar problems because an estimated 30,000 men from Mexico and Central and South America, many in crowded buses and trucks, came into those three states after Hurricane Katrina, willing to work for less than whatever was paid to U.S. citizens.

Meanwhile, President Bush signed the Katrina Emergency Assistance Act extending for 13 weeks the unemployment benefits to U.S. citizens displaced by Katrina. Thus employers get the benefit of cheap foreign labor while you and I provide taxpayer handouts to workers whom the government allowed to be displaced from the jobs they were eager to take.

There is no penalty on employers who replace U.S. citizens with illegal immigrants at lower pay. Homeland Security even announced it has suspended the sanctioning of employers who hire illegal immigrants, and President Bush suspended the Davis-Bacon Act, which requires local contractors to pay "prevailing" wages.

A study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research reported that the surge of immigration in the 1980s and 1990s lowered the wages of our own high school dropouts by 8.2 percent. The surge has accelerated since that report was issued. The Congressional Budget Office reported that 60 percent of Mexican and Central American workers in the United States in 2004 lacked a high school diploma.

The Kennedy-McCain-Bush guest worker plan would import more uneducated, unskilled workers, and thereby deny our own high school dropouts (of whom we have too many) the opportunity to get started in building their lives in the labor force. U.S. citizens are threatened that the cost of lettuce will rise precipitously if we don't continue to import Mexican agricultural workers. But a farm worker gets only 6 or 7 cents out of a $1 head of lettuce, so even if the pay doubles, consumers would hardly notice the difference.

On the other hand, the costs taxpayers are forced to pay for social benefits for low-paid workers are astronomical. The National Research Council reports that an immigrant to the United States without a high-school diploma consumes $89,000 more in government services than he pays in taxes during his lifetime.

Low-paid illegal immigrants obviously pay very little taxes, but they cash in on all sorts of benefits paid by other taxpayers, such as schooling for their children, emergency health care, housing subsidies, Earned Income Tax Credit and law enforcement. If the 20 million illegal immigrants are legalized, they will also become eligible for Medicaid, and that's a real break-the-bank prospect.

These figures don't even count the rapidly growing underground economy, in which millions of illegal immigrants are paid off the books in cash. That enables both employer and employee to avoid paying taxes, and enables employers to avoid paying workers' compensation, unemployment compensation, and assorted other taxes.

If the Internal Revenue Service collected all the taxes that should be paid by the underground economy, our current budget deficit would disappear overnight, according to a Bear Stearns study released in 2005. The Americans who pay taxes are giving a free ride to those who are not paying taxes, and a 7-cent increase in the price of lettuce should not be on our worry list.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: aliens; borderlist; dividedtheyfall; dusrupter; illegalaliens; illegalimmigration; illegals; immigrantlist; immigration; mexicanhater; newby; onetrickpony; racists; schlafly
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To: Spiff

Its not hard for you to understand Spiff. Just link to an article that says that the protests were violent.


301 posted on 05/04/2006 5:19:23 PM PDT by Ben Ficklin
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To: Spiff
Now that is funny. Thanks for the laugh.
302 posted on 05/04/2006 5:26:12 PM PDT by Czar (StillFedUptotheTeeth@Washington)
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To: Ben Ficklin
Its not hard for you to understand Spiff. Just link to an article that says that the protests were violent.

I'll take your continued intentionally obtuse responses to be an admission that you can't even post a single qualifying photo in reponse to Post #297.

And, FYI, no one has said that all of the protests or protestors were violent. The fact remains that some were.

303 posted on 05/04/2006 5:28:14 PM PDT by Spiff ("They start yelling, 'Murderer!' 'Traitor!' They call me by name." - Gael Murphy, Code Pink leader)
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To: Spiff

Ack! My photo died. Aaaaargh...


304 posted on 05/04/2006 5:28:48 PM PDT by Spiff ("They start yelling, 'Murderer!' 'Traitor!' They call me by name." - Gael Murphy, Code Pink leader)
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To: Spiff
The fact also remains he claimed "By the accounts of all law enforcement, the demonstrations have been remarkably peaceful."

Notice, however, the absence of links which back up that claim.

Notice, also, the absence of links which refute the overwhelmingly evidence that pro-illegal aliens and illegal aliens have Aztlan ties, Che-ties, and Socialist ties.

305 posted on 05/04/2006 5:41:40 PM PDT by nicmarlo (Bush is the Best President Ever. Rah. Rah.)
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To: HEMICRASHBOX

Arrival of aliens ousts U.S. workers

By Jerry Seper
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published April 10, 2006

An Alabama employment agency that sent 70 laborers and construction workers to job sites in that state in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina says the men were sent home after just two weeks on the job by employers who told them "the Mexicans had arrived" and were willing to work for less. Linda Swope, who operates Complete Employment Services Inc. in Mobile, Ala., told The Washington Times last week that the workers -- whom she described as U.S. citizens, residents of Alabama and predominantly black -- had been "urgently requested" by contractors hired to rebuild and clear devastated areas of the state, but were told to leave three job sites when the foreign workers showed up. "After Katrina, our company had 70 workers on the job the first day, but the companies decided they didn't need them anymore because the Mexicans had arrived," Mrs. Swope said. "I assure you it is not true that Americans don't want to work.........

http://www.washtimes.com/national/20060410-123506-1297r.htm


306 posted on 05/04/2006 5:44:16 PM PDT by last american
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To: Spiff
What you want to do is post a pic and then tell me what is a pic of.

If you want to post a pic, that is OK as long as you have some documentation to back it up. And I will post links to articles that deacribe the protest as peaceful.

307 posted on 05/04/2006 5:46:27 PM PDT by Ben Ficklin
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To: nicmarlo

I offered to post links if you would post links. I even put the first one up. Where's yours?


308 posted on 05/04/2006 5:48:56 PM PDT by Ben Ficklin
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To: Ben Ficklin
No. That's not what I'm talking about. Last chance. Read post #297. Come back after you read it and tell me what you think it said. Then, once we establish that you can understand its plain english, we'll see if you want to play even with a 10 to 1 advantage.
309 posted on 05/04/2006 5:49:39 PM PDT by Spiff ("They start yelling, 'Murderer!' 'Traitor!' They call me by name." - Gael Murphy, Code Pink leader)
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To: Spiff
I don't need to read it. Post a link to an article that says the protests were violent.

Put up or shut up.

310 posted on 05/04/2006 5:52:27 PM PDT by Ben Ficklin
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To: Ben Ficklin
I don't need to read it. Post a link to an article that says the protests were violent.

You know what it said. Come on, admit it. You just don't want to play. You're just playing dumb to stay away from that challenge because you know you can't come up with a SINGLE PICTURE of a pro-Republican sign or banner from Monday's marches. Not even one. Not one. So, the illegal aliens and their enablers are marching in the streets, President Bush wants to reward them with amnesty to gain their votes, yet there is NO evidence that ANY of them support Republicans. Then why are you shilling for them? If you are a conservative Republican, then why are you acting as an apologist for just about the most anti-Republican mob around?

311 posted on 05/04/2006 6:00:13 PM PDT by Spiff ("They start yelling, 'Murderer!' 'Traitor!' They call me by name." - Gael Murphy, Code Pink leader)
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To: Spiff
Why would you expect to find a pro republican sign at a democratic organized protest. They are protesting the republicans.

Are you dumb?

312 posted on 05/04/2006 6:03:22 PM PDT by Ben Ficklin
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To: Ben Ficklin
I offered to post links if you would post links. I even put the first one up. Where's yours?

My links were put up from my first post. You made refutations to my "outstanding post" with outstanding rubbish, remember? The rubbish you posted lacked ANY links to corroborate your claims. Remember? I asked you thrice for corroboration of your rubbish. Remember?

This is now the 4th time: Concerning my original post, which had pictures, links to articles, evidence of riot(s), and examples of pro-illegal/illegal alien involvement with SOCIALISM, pro-Che, and Aztlan organizations: Post your proof that what I said is incorrect.

313 posted on 05/04/2006 6:03:31 PM PDT by nicmarlo (Bush is the Best President Ever. Rah. Rah.)
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To: Ben Ficklin
Why would you expect to find a pro republican sign at a democratic organized protest. They are protesting the republicans.

Why are you acting as an apologist for the democratic (actually marxist) organized mobs then? Why are you a resident apologist for the whole illegal alien horde in the United States if it's so dumb to expect them to support Republicans? What is your freakin' point here, Ben?

314 posted on 05/04/2006 6:06:21 PM PDT by Spiff ("They start yelling, 'Murderer!' 'Traitor!' They call me by name." - Gael Murphy, Code Pink leader)
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To: nicmarlo
Post a link to an article that desribes the protest as violent.

Put up or shut up

315 posted on 05/04/2006 6:07:18 PM PDT by Ben Ficklin
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To: Spiff

Put up or shut up


316 posted on 05/04/2006 6:07:53 PM PDT by Ben Ficklin
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To: Ben Ficklin
Fifth time: Concerning my original post, which had pictures, links to articles, evidence of riot(s), and examples of pro-illegal/illegal alien involvement with SOCIALISM, pro-Che, and Aztlan organizations: Post proof to your refutations that what I said is incorrect.
317 posted on 05/04/2006 6:11:55 PM PDT by nicmarlo (Bush is the Best President Ever. Rah. Rah.)
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To: Ben Ficklin
Put up or shut up

Ben, I don't know what you're talking about. I've never characterized all of the protests or protestors as violent. I don't know what is is that you want me to "put up". I did, however, provide video evidence that some protests were violent and you REFUSED to view the videos. You keep pretending that anyone here is putting forth the argument that all of the protests and protestors were violent. No one has made that argument. Yet YOU have made the argument that ALL of the protests were peaceful. That has been demonstrated by the video evidence that you choose to ignore to be untrue. Yet you continue this stupid game after you've already lost your argument.

I offered you a different game and gave you a 10 to 1 advantage yet all you wanted to do is play dumb.

Now, what I want to know is what the hell you get out of playing apologist for the mobs in the streets that you admit are organized by democrats (actually marxists) and think it dumb that any of them would show support for Republicans? Why are you on their side? Why do you continue, day in and day out, to shill for them on Free Republic? What is your point with all of that?

You've morphed from someone who may have had a logical argument in support of the President's amnesty scheme into someone who never hesitates to support and defend the invaders marching in the streets even when they're protesting the President, Republicans, and Republican legislation and even when some are calling for the decapitation of the President. You really need to get a grip, Ben.

318 posted on 05/04/2006 6:21:46 PM PDT by Spiff ("They start yelling, 'Murderer!' 'Traitor!' They call me by name." - Gael Murphy, Code Pink leader)
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To: nicmarlo
Here is another article about the peaceful protest

Where is your article about the violent protest?

319 posted on 05/04/2006 6:24:58 PM PDT by Ben Ficklin
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To: WestSylvanian
So, those who willfully and deliberately and repeatedly break our laws should be given "respect?"

Well, tens of millions of Americans deliberately, repeatedly, and flagrantly violate speed limit laws on our highways every day (resulting in hundreds of needless accidental deaths every month) and cheat on their income taxes every year. So do you want to prosecute all of those willful lawbreakers too, or only illegal immigrants?

320 posted on 05/04/2006 6:26:17 PM PDT by carl in alaska ("You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed." - Mt 24:4)
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