Posted on 12/22/2005 11:07:33 AM PST by lonewacko_dot_com
`Tis the season for Christmas trees and immigration reform, two issues that are rarely considered in the same thought. But they are intricately interconnected in important ways: As with most agricultural products, growers rely heavily on immigrant labor to bring the trees to market...
...While politicians put presents under their trees they should think about workers such as Buca, a 35-year-old Mexican immigrant who works in North Carolina, where one out of every five Christmas trees sold in the United States is grown. It is grueling, backbreaking work, the sort that most of us born in the United States would never do, for any amount of money...
...There is something not simply wrong but immoral with an immigration policy that does not make full room for workers such as Buca.
One promising, if incremental, reform was last year's Agricultural Job Opportunity, Benefits and Security Act, which was endorsed by the National Christmas Tree Association and various labor unions...
...As politicians gather around Christmas trees for photo-ops and family gatherings, they should take a minute to reflect on who grows those great symbols of generosity and brotherhood. After the holidays, they should craft a policy that welcomes all hard-working Americans, regardless of their country of origin.
(Excerpt) Read more at reason.com ...
Please also monitor Hit & Run occasionally and respond to their inevitable future posts promoting massive immigration.
I suspect if the pay rate was $1000 per hour, the line would stretch over the horizon. I know I'd be in it.
Now that we've established that there's at least one lie in the story, read on.
"It is grueling, backbreaking work, the sort that most of us born in the United States would never do, for any amount of money..."
Apparently the laws of economics have been repealed then? Why wasn't I told?!
Of course all hard-working, law-abiding Americans are welcome -- they already Americans. It's the illegals that aren't welcome.
These guys need to take their nose out of the magazine Tuesdays at 9PM. Discorvery runs a series called Dirty Jobs that are done by Americans.
That line is so tired. ....and so wrong.
I doubt they would be selling many Christmas trees then so it wouldn't matter.
If we ended the nanny state and our choices were...work, or starve...many current welfare recipients would be spreading pine straw in the South.
Exactly. ....and if anyone should be aware of that fact it's the libertarians at Reason Mag.
I grow my own tree. It's agin my upfetchin to buy somethin that grows for free.
However, please keep in mind that Libertarians also advocate eliminating the welfare state and the regulatory state that forces businesses to hire cheap labor. Plus, whatever public benefits available would be denied to illegals, which would discourage most illegals from coming here in the first place.
I do disagree with them that the border should remain wide open. This is just foolhardy.
What a pants load
Here in north central WI we have been growing Christmas trees for many generations
Back breaking work?...bwahahahaha
Working 14 hr days as a human cuber in a concrete block factory next to the kilns...might qualify but not cutting,pruning,bundling and selling Christmas trees
My boy scout troop and high school conservation class did this work to raise money for our community...and did it in below zero weather some years...
In central WI..high school kids and college kids have always done this work during the summer and Christmas vacations.
This open borders scam is simply about cheap labor and getting other working class Americans to pay the down side costs
And doing it with lies,lies and more lies.. and to the detriment of our nation as a whole
Greed is not good...Gordon Gecko is a villain
imo
And even libertarians disagree with other libertarians on the issue.
However, please keep in mind that Libertarians also advocate eliminating the welfare state and the regulatory state that forces businesses to hire cheap labor. Plus, whatever public benefits available would be denied to illegals, which would discourage most illegals from coming here in the first place.
Right. Libertarians are very much like conservatives/republicans on this.
"Right. Libertarians are very much like conservatives/republicans on this."
Yeah. Plus, if you want some advice on Linux, you can ask any libertarian. They're all Linux consultants.
Speak for yourselves, Gillespie and DeConto! Just because you guys were born with silver spoons in your mouths doesn't mean we all were. I've worked crappy, backbreaking manual labor jobs for lousy pay in the past, as have most other people in this country at some point in their lives.
As valuable as migrant labor is ("undocumented workers") businessmen should not stop at five-dollar-an-hour Hispanic migrant labor. It is well documented that Chinese workers are hard workers and very economical labor.
Red China has 800 million peasant citizens many of whom would work here unlimited hours for a dollar an hour and a clean place to sleep on the premises.
Why do the authors favor such uneconomical Hispanic labor? Are they bigoted against Asians? Clearly economics demands the most economical labor -- and the Chi-coms would be happy so send 10 million or so to help their good friends in the U.S. of A. (Need 50 million? 100 million? Just ask.)
That's funny. I buy my tree from a local producer who grows his own trees with the help of his family and some hired hands, all caucasian.
Not an illegal alien in sight.
This article is a crock of bleep.
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