Posted on 12/29/2004 10:12:21 AM PST by nanak
Soon we will be approaching a time when "We the People" must be heard because of government inaction with regard to immigration enforcement. And when "We the People" voice our opinion, the government of course, will not approve.
It would seem that our elected politicians should be outraged by the apparent willingness of a federal government that allows illegal aliens to roam free in this country. I know I'm frustrated, and every citizen should be.
Sadly, with the exception of Representatives Jim Sensenbrenner, Tom Tancredo, Dana Rohrabacher, Virgil Good, to mention "a few good men" serving in Congress, who have stepped up to the plate to show concern and to demand action from this Administration to stop the massive invasion of lawbreakers, our concerns are not represented in Congress. Are we to conclude that those who have not spoken up approve of our country being invaded with illegal aliens, or are they just "chicken little cowards?" Either way these cowards shouldn't be in office pretending to represent us, because they do not. And these same cowards shouldn't take for granted the tenacity of "We the People" or underestimate our willingness to do what needs to be accomplished to preserve the sovereignty of this country.
It's very clear that there are devious and vigorous forces that want to continue the flow of illegal aliens into this country. The race is on and this administration is gearing up to push through yet another amnesty against the will of the people. Our "Here We Go 'Round the Amnesty Bush" President, needs a wake-up call and it may just have to come from Senator Hillary Clinton.
Amazing information. Thank you.
Good post and information.
IMO there are jobs that most Americans won't do and I have sympathy for the small businessman.
But the reason many of those jobs still exist is because there are people who are more equal than others. They can stop progress with the stroke of a pen on a political contribution check.
I have watched tomatoes being harvested, one machine and one truck along side as vines are uprooted, shaken and tomatoes fill the conveyor belt leading into the open trailers. It's fast and other trucks returning for more wait nearby. 24/7. Tomatoes spilling off the trailers litter the roads especially at corners.
The more-equal ones would rather see the poor stooped over filling that conveyor belt. Go figure.
The Los Angeles City Council passed an ordinance banning the use of leaf blowers but the Mexican "gardeners" went right ahead -- to this day -- breaking that law. This defiance of the law was advocated by the manufacturers of the leaf blowers. Now, we have flooding in our streets because the storm drains are clogged by leaves and debris that got there via leaf blower.
Regards
Thanks for the video links. We could harvest our crop like that, but what would Congress do for votes (sarcasm), big business for cheap labor (cost of machine probably $100,000 versus $5.00 - $7.00 for illegal immigrants), and don't forget the lobbyists who would be unemployed due to not having their "special interests".
I've worked plenty of "nasty" jobs and it didn't make me feel degraded. When your hungry you'll just about work at anything...even picking produce (which definitely is not the worst job in the world).
The machinery angle makes sense, and it must make sense to the big Agri-business. Let's just say they all go mechanised and won't need the cheap labor in a few years. Then what? What happens to all those "guest workers" then? There is no good ending to this mess, I think we've waited too long.
I picked berries to earn money from 12-14 years old. I enjoyed it!
Of course I grew up on a farm, so it was the kind of thing that you did, to earn money.
Of course now, child labor laws don't allow kids to do farm work, unless it's on your own family farm.
Here you go:
Do citizens really want these jobs?
From construction to landscaping, Bush 'guest worker' plan is controversial.
By Daniel B. Wood | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
LOS ANGELES – Scott Joyal says that if it weren't for illegal immigrants taking jobs that could have been his - first as a car washer or waiter, later in carpentry and construction - he would have had a lot easier time surviving financially over the past 10 years. The San Jose carpenter says he knows dozens of his colleagues who, like him, are also struggling to pay rent and keep food in the refrigerator because of competition from immigration.
It's a view that goes to one of the core questions raised by President Bush's proposal to let millions of illegal workers become legal "guest workers": Would they be stealing jobs that American citizens want and need?
Bush says no.
He calls it a "basic fact of life and economics" that some jobs being generated in America are ones citizens don't want to fill.
Yet that premise is controversial - in a slow job market in which millions are looking for work - and to many economists it is misleading. Many citizens will, and do, work side by side with immigrants who may be illegal in industries from meatpacking to hotels and landscaping. "Those workers are competing with US workers," says Dean Baker, an economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research. "It's simply not true that US workers won't take these jobs." But many, he concedes, won't take them at the going wage.
In the view of many economists, the question is less one of stealing jobs than of altering the balance in labor market. The influx of immigrants, legal and illegal, adds to the supply of low-cost labor and puts downward pressure on pay. The upside, for the US economy, is lower consumer prices and, in some cases, keeping some production at home that might otherwise shift overseas.
For example, what if instead of recognizing "guest workers" the government took a policy of aggressively weeding out illegal immigrants? The resulting upward pressure on wages might push some jobs in, say, meatpacking or agriculture out of the country. But in other cases, it might prod businesses to increase wages, expand the use of automation (such as in harvesting), and to pass higher costs along to consumers.
Gauging the precise impact of immigrants, especially the illegal ones for whom the guest worker program is designed, is tricky. And employer groups and groups favoring limits on immigration can come up with very different conclusions. In one 1997 study the National Research Council found that immigration depresses wages modestly for many lower-income workers - by perhaps 5 percent over 15 years.
To many on the ground, however, the impact feels large. Construction is one industry where Baker says pay scales have been hit by the immigrant influx.
"I'm not against [immigrants]," says Mr. Joyal, the San Jose carpenter. "It just makes it difficult for native-born Americans to get jobs when undocumented aliens are lined up to get them first."
Since 1993, he says he has been turned down by carwashes, schools seeking janitors, restaurants, and hosts of construction jobs because immigrants got there first or underbid him.
Landscaping is another industry transformed by immigrant labor, even in states as far from the border as North Carolina.
Keith Martin, who owns a Raleigh-area landscape business, says the native-born Americans he encounters don't want to do the type of jobs he routinely gives to immigrants.
"Through my experience, Americans don't want to do this type of work, no matter what you pay them," says Mr. Martin, who runs a small shop with a trailer of mowers and hedge trimmers.
This doesn't prompt him to support Bush's guest worker idea, but it's the current reality of a business that involves laboring in the oppressive heat of Dixie, trimming curbs of suburban ranch houses and keeping the flower beds at local high-tech firms looking healthy.
In Bush's plan, illegal immigrants already in the US could apply for a three-year work permit, which would be renewable at least once. By giving legal status to millions already working in the fringes of the US economy, observers say, Bush's plan is to help ease labor shortages, improve working conditions, and stabilize wages paid to previously illegal immigrants.
But with the president scheduled to meet Monday with Mexican President Vicente Fox, the merits of the plan are a topic of hot debate.
"This is really a far bigger issue than just who gets low income jobs in immigration and border states," says Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies. "There are no numerical limits on these guest workers or what sector of the economy the jobs apply to. If employers can bypass American workers and not have to offer better wages and conditions ... the consequences to the American workplace could impact everyone."
According to the Center for Immigration Studies, there are more than 5.5 million working immigrants in America - legal and illegal - who lack high school education. Eighteen percent are in agriculture, 18 percent in construction, 16 percent in retail, 23 percent in manufacturing, 7 in business services/repair and 6 percent in personal services from maids to limo drivers.
"When we have 18 million Americans who can't find full-time jobs, it seems ludicrous to even be considering a program to import more foreign workers," says Rosemary Jencks of Numbers USA, an immigration reduction organization.
Kate Bronfenbrenner, a labor expert at Cornell University, says you can't draw a one-to-one comparison between the estimated 7 million illegal immigrants and the ranks of the US unemployed.
Some jobs categories are growing fast, she says, and they are often low-paying ones such as nurses' aides and housecleaners. "It's not true that Americans aren't working in them. There are just are plenty of those jobs to go around."
She worries, however, that Bush's plan tilts power heavily to employers, since the guest workers are not granted permanent residency. "Bush has established a program that gives employers the opportunity to exploit immigrant workers to an even greater degree."
• Patrik Jonsson and Mark Trumbull contributed to this report from Raliegh and Boston.
I can't tell you the small business's that I've seen just disappear because of the infusion of cheap illegal labor. These people don't show up on the unemployment rolls. Often they're middle aged, don't have to work full time, their home paid for, but needed their little biz to survive and pay for insurance and medical care. Many craftsmen and artisans. So, no job, no medical care, unless you sign your house over to the state (no one wants to believe that). And more than likely the neighborhood that is taken over by illegals is often that same American citizen's neighborhood. Now he sees it turn into a barrio, except the illegals get all the medical care, education, you name it and never have to give up anything to pay it back. There is a growing class of 45 to 65 year olds out there who can't begin to compete in this labor market. Well, there's always a greeter's job at Wal-Mart.
When was that article written? If it's recent, you should post it.
Thanks.
Prop 200 cut the freebies. That's one thing we need every state to run for because it makes state workers leery about assisting illegals.
Then we need to go for employers who are hiring illegals.
I'm not talking about just Hispanics, I want all illegals out of here. Lets get some morals back into our society!
Bump that!
It appears VISA has jumped onto the illegal alien money wagon. What is interesting is the Visa number of $38 billion being sent "home" by illegals. We thought the number was about $30 billion. Mexico's second industry is growing! And undoubtedly the number of illegals living in this country. How does anyone think they are a net contributor to our country???HOW?
******
Lou Dobbs Show/CNN/Aired 12/28/04
Snip------
And Visa targets immigrant workers in a new ad campaign. But some say the program pose poses a security risk to this country.
PILGRIM: Visa International is launching an aggressive campaign to convince Latin American migrant workers to use plastic to send money back home. Now, Visa hopes to take over some of the money transfer business from companies like Western Union and Moneygram. Critics say using debit cards to transfer money raises new security concerns. Lisa Sylvester has the story.
LISA SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT : Visa, it's everywhere you want to be, and in some places, you may not expect it to be. Visa International is targeting migrant and other workers from Latin America as its new favorite customer. The company is marketing its smart card that works as a prepaid debit card. Workers in the United States can easily transfer money to relatives abroad at a low cost. The banking industry hopes to tap into the remittance payment market that has been growing at an astronomical pace.
MANUEL OROZCO, INTER-AMERICAN DIALOGUE: In 2001, it is total volume of remittances to Latin American was $18 billion, and it grew to $38 billion three years later.
SYLVESTER: Wire services, including Western Union and Moneygram so far have dominated the $38 billion money-transfer market. A recent study found that 86 percent of remittances to Latin America and the Caribbean were cash transfers, 4 percent home delivery, 4 percent bank or credit union deposit, and 1 percent debit or smart card. Not everyone agrees that banking institutions make it easier to send money out of the country. Critics say nearly $40 billion a year exiting the United States is not small change, and leaves less money for some of the poorest U.S. communities. And there's also a potential security risk.
MARK KRIKORIAN, CENTER FOR IMMIGRATION STUDIES: Immigrant remittances are one of the ways bad guys can transfer money across borders because even though most of that money is completely innocent, people working jobs and sending money home, it can serve as cover for terrorists, other kinds of criminals to move money.
SYLVESTER: But Visa and other credit card companies are charging forward, reaching into one of the few untapped markets.
SYLVESTER: The banking industry is convinced it can capture more of the market because its costs tend to be lower than traditional wire transfers. The bank costs as little as $8 a transfer, using the smart cards, and on the other hand, wire services can cost up to $25 a transfer. Kitty?
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0412/28/ldt.01.html
bttt
BTTT
Happy new year, you two. You have been informative and honest. I appreciate it.
JAS
Thanks Savage, and you too have been an asset to this site.
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