Posted on 04/10/2025 2:41:26 AM PDT by Libloather
Modern Democrats have latched onto an argument in favor of illegal immigration — and it’s the same one pro-slavery Democrats used in the 1800s.
“So, I had to go around the country and educate people about what immigrants do for this country, or the fact we are a country of immigrants. The fact is ain’t none of y’all trying to go and farm right now,” Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) said at a speech commemorating Grace Baptist Church’s 125th anniversary in Waterbury, Conn.
“You’re not, you’re not. We done picking cotton. We are. You can’t pay us enough to find a plantation.”
A cheap, illegal workforce is necessary, the Democrats argue, and the peoples of Mexico, Honduras, Haiti and other nations should be forced to fill it.
Rep. Jerry Nadler of New York agrees, stating in a hearing last year, “Forget the fact that our vegetables would rot in the ground if it weren’t being picked by many immigrants, many illegal immigrants.”
In January 2025, Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) pressed the then-agriculture secretary nominee, Brooke Rollins, during her nomination hearing about the impact of losing illegal labor.
“It’s estimated that half of California’s farmer workforce is undocumented. How are farmers in California supposed to survive if there are truly mass deportations in which half of the workforce is sent out of the country?”
“Americans don’t want to do that work. It’s frankly too backbreaking. So, who’s going to work the farms?”
Do Democrats — the party of woke and cancel culture — realize how racist they’re being?
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Remember the North at that time was importing hordes of the poor from Europe and putting them up in atrocious tenement housing with almost zero public sanitation so they could work in horrendously unsafe factories....no OSHA, no child labor laws, no tort law, etc. If/when they died or got mangled in industrial accidents, well tough crap for them and there were plenty more European serfs coming over to take their place. The prospect of being able to eventually gather up a few nickels to rub together and go obtain land via homesteading (land ownership...the impossible dream in Europe) would keep drawing them over the Atlantic no matter how bad conditions were back in the East.
The North hardly treated its own wage slaves any better at the time.
“...at that time.”
Current Democrats have not moved on.
“Remember the North at that time was importing hordes of the poor from Europe”
You’re talking about my grandparents.
They moved west and found land to homestead.
They did fine.
European poor came here on their own looking for a better life - they weren't being 'imported'... but the situation with illegals IS slaveryLite - and it's disgusting.
I'm glad to hear things worked out for them. Things did not work out for many. Look at the death rates (often due to disease due to the very unsanitary living conditions in crowded cities in the East). Look at the death rates and the number of people left mangled and crippled in industrial accidents in the early to mid 19th century. Tort law developed at the time for this reason. There was simply no compensation for people left mangled before that....the same goes with OSHA, Child Labor laws, etc etc. I'm as dedicated a free market guy as anyone, but the abuses of labor by corporate fatcats at the time was just awful and eventually sparked a fierce backlash.
But today’s cheap labor arguments are equal to what amounts to voluntary servitude of the past. The past voluntary servitude may not have been is bad as being a chattel slave, but it was done in with the intent of maintaining a permanent underclass— just like with today.
There was often active recruitment over in Europe and of course, there were no controls over how many poor people from Europe poured in every year. Conditions for labor would have been significantly better in the US had the inflow been slower/more controlled. As it was, the flood of immigrants really strengthened the hand of corporations over workers then just as it does now.
You’re right. The minor quibble was about the term ‘imported’. “Recruited” works for me - and shows freedom of choice on the part of workers coming here.
Agree the people poor multitudes pouring in had freedom of choice. Nobody forced them to come. Just like the 10 million + illegal aliens who poured into the country during the Biden regime were not forced to come and had freedom of choice too.
The result of this uncontrolled flood of poor people led to many of the same abuses then that we see now...people trafficked, sweat shops, very unsanitary living conditions, etc. I hate to even put it like this because these are terms the Commies often use, but there was real “exploitation” of many of these poor people by corporate fatcats going on. The presence of so many allowed them to crush the bargaining power of American workers too.
Don’t even begin to besmirch the Old South by comparing with modern democrats!
Actually, today’s Democrats reveal their true intentions align with those of lying, murder, and treason.
Every blue collar job is “back breaking”.
It was worse in the countries they left.
My Great Grandmother lost seven infant’s before immigrating.
Times were tough everywhere.
The North hardly treated its own wage slaves any better at the time.
It was economic slavery. Yet, it was STILL better than conditions in Europe at the time. Many of those conditions were similar to serfdom and feudalism. The tales my GF told of his youth were chilling.
Even so, many millions improved their lot tremendously and the legacy of their efforts made this country the greatest. Now, much of the time we just import welfare slaves to be dumblecrat voters.They don’t want to pick crops, either.
was that in your best southern accent?
I believe that many in the South thought that the North was evil for it’s use of immigrants as wage-slaves in factories. No one looked out for those wage-slaves. If things didn’t go well for them, no one cared.
I believe that many in the North thought that the South was evil for it’s use of Negroes as chattel slavery. Being owned as property was wrong, but it can at least be said that the owner did have a strong incentive to provide a level of care for his property.
After the Civil War, the wage-slavery of the immigrants continued, and the chattel slavery of the Negroes was replaced by Sharecropping in which agricultural workers were tied to the land, worked for starvation wages, and no one looked out for those workers. If things didn’t go well for them, no one cared.
Things have always been tough all over.
It is a Chicken and egg conundrum.
There surely are machines available, which can replace most of that grueling work. But they are expensive.
Cheap immigrants are more price effective right now.
But, if the immigrants are removed, then the farmers will have to invest. And guess what?
We will have our stuff, probably cheaper in long run, without taking care about immigrant welfare!
Nope, the Irish were signed up for the military as soon as they hit the docks.
I honestly don’t think the legal immigration of Europe is comparable to the slavery of the south.
While the slavery of the south is, actually, comparable to the illegal immigration of cartel slaves shipped across the border today.
The women and young female children are raped. They’re all disregarded as chattel in packed transports at whim, even when it kills them.
Oh, and hey, getting ransomed or murdered is what they CHOSE to do every bit as much as the slaves made their choices a couple hundred years ago.
Meanwhile, Democrats continue to be democrats as apologists for the slave trade then and now.
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