Posted on 06/28/2019 7:54:45 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
It’s 7:20 p.m. when he rolls into Spicy Bite, one of the newest restaurants here in rural northwest New Mexico.
Locals in Milan, a town of 3,321, have barely heard of it.
The building is small, single-story, built of corrugated metal sheets. There are seats for 20. The only advertising is spray-painted on concrete roadblocks in English and Punjabi. Next door is a diner and gas station; the county jail is across the road.
Palwinder Singh orders creamy black lentils, chicken curry and roti, finishing it off with chai and cardamom rice pudding. After 13 hours on and off the road in his semi truck, he leans back in a booth as a Bollywood music video plays on TV.
“This is like home,” says Pal, the name he uses on the road (said like “Paul”).
There are 3.5 million truckers in the United States. California has 138,000, the second-most after Texas. Nearly half of those in California are immigrants, most from Mexico or Central America. But as drivers age toward retirement — the average American trucker is 55 — and a shortage grows, Sikh immigrants and their kids are increasingly taking up the job.
Estimates of the number of Sikh truckers vary. In California alone, tens of thousands of truckers trace their heritage to India. The state is home to half of the Sikhs in the U.S. — members of a monotheistic faith with origins in 15th century India whose followers are best recognized by the uncut hair and turbans many men wear. At Sikh temples in Sacramento, Fresno, Bakersfield and Riverside, the majority of worshipers are truck drivers and their families.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Your screen name has a typo, “GOP-E”
You must be listening to futurists and MBAs.
I suspect he is grossly understating his income, as I would if being interviewed.
In North Dakota, the average truck driver salary is $95k per year..and that's as an employee, not an owner.
A friend of mine here in Michigan is a CPA and one of his clients is an independent with his own truck and he grosses approx. $200K per year.
The average cost of a new semi is anywhere between $80K to $150K and more..........
That's a Zumba class.....LOL!
As long as trucks need to stop for blown tire changes, gas and minor engine repairs, they will always need drivers......
The training is there, the jobs are there so why aren't Americans taking advantage of them? Salaries are increasing sharply due to an estimated shortage of between 60,000 and 100,000 drivers........
I'm with you on the 'asylum' crap... it's become a loophole large enough to drive a truck through. Change the laws... no more 'asylum' crap... it was a decent gesture on our part that has been abused by the slugs of the world.
Yep. We need an asylum moratorium. Many other countries out there to take them in, we’ve done well more than our share. Also, by the rightful and recognized principle that they should go to the closest country that will take them, there is nobody who needs asylum from us.
“In that regard they are a formidable fighting people.”
Which is why they flee their country to come here?
I love the Sihk as they are good people. However, they can never be Americans as they will not assimilate. They demand their own customs in violation of ours laws and customs.
Twenty years ago, I had a brief career as a truck driver. Made numerous trips to Canada. Lots of Sikh drivers in Canada at the time.
It does beg the question; why aren't Americans driving trucks? Have regulations made truck driving so insufferable that Americans don't want to do it? I think there's some fact in this but I think there's another issue that we don't like to talk about.
Do Americans have a work-ethic problem?
Didn't realize they were getting in on the ‘asylum’ loophole that's large enough to drive a truck through.
That said our problem is with corrupt democrats who expanded a courtesy (asylum offered to innocent people violently harassed by their governments) to anyone willing to lie... Which is what's happening here.
Trump knows the what the problems are... that our ‘immigration laws’ have been twisted to conform to the fantasies of commie democrats - positions that will destroy our country. So, you're right. This has to stop... we need to change the laws and make 'illegal immigration ' the top issue of this election and every election after this until the problem is solved.
And the need for pilots.
Lots of good opportunities
At least they’re here legally, not swarming a border demanding things, are they?
Again, thank you. Excellent portrayal of devout men of courage and great faith. I’m now on episode 19. Reaping an abundance of knowledge. Not how I planned to spend Saturday...but well worth my time.
Like I said, I like the Sihks as a people, but I don’t hold them in any higher regard than I do anyone else who flees their own country instead of staying and making it better.
They don’t want to be Americans, they want to be Sikhs, so they treat us as just a paycheck. I’m tired of being the world’s paycheck.
I can agree with you in one respect, that we aren’t the worlds ATM . I want at least a year moratorium at a minimum on legal immigration. But I haven’t noticed Sikhs waving their flag in my face, demanding I learn their language and demanding that they be given the right to sit on their ass and expect me and every other taxpayer support them and their baby producing machines.
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