[cripplecreek]

Sure costs will go up, but higher wages will trickle down.

[Lizavetta]

Taxes would go down

Once government has succeeded in getting your money, you can bet they will not give it back, even if the original "need" for the tax has gone away.

I've always thought that any "tax cut", which is always highly publicized, is secretly compensated back to the government by raising a thousand other current taxes by miniscule amounts in a way that no one will notice. Call me cynical.

[prion]

A reasonable overview, I think.

[bordergal]

Then use H-2 visas if you are short of agricultural labor, that is what they are for.

We have a system in place. Life will go on.

[Onelifetogive]

Ventura County without undocumented workers would mean

Of course, this assumes that ILLEGAL workers could not be replaced with the necessary number of LEGAL immigrants from Ukraine, Thailand, Ethiopia, Italy, etc. The benefit of spreading the immigration around versus having the majority of our immigrants being from Mexico is that they will quickly assimilate into the American culture. They would have to because there would not be enough immigrants from any one culture to allow them to maintain that culture here (i.e. no Ukrainian shopping, Ukrainian schools, Ukrainian government forms, Ukrainian television, Ukrainian radio, etc.....)

I would be happy to have total immigration HIGHER than the current level of legal AND illegal immigration if it could be spread around. When America was a much younger country, we had immigration MUCH higher as a percent of the population than we currently have. They assimilated just fine. The reason we can't have that level of immigration now is that the leftists have 1) denigrated teaching the greatness of American culture and 2) burdened our country with a welfare system that keeps us from admitting too many people because we would have to support them. I'd rather fix those problems than keep out the millions of people around the world who would join the America culture and make this country great for another millennium...

[ridesthemiles]

Rojas says he would only work for $20 an hour, then he proceeds to say that he works now as a landscaper for $400 a week. If that is a 40 hour week, that is $10/hour.
What kind of fuzzy math is involved here???

[LaMudBug]

IMHO, this is an article that covers a lot of illegal immigration bases and is well written as far as I am concerned. Others with greater knowledge of the immigration issue or greater bias may have a different viewpoint and have the freedom to express their thinking on this or other formats.

My biggest problem with the illegals coming here from Mexico is not their primary focus of income from some kind of a job in this great country, but the latent and hidden desire to "Reconquista" the SouthWest U.S. Those that wish to do this are no different from the raghead Islams that want to turn this great country into a Muslim theocracy.

The Mexican government is doing what the English did in the 1600's and the 1700's. They emptied their jails, poor houses, insane asylums and put them on ships bound for the U.S. That reduced their social costs of government and that is exactly what the country of Mexico is doing at this time. A poverty stricken, corrupt, elitist governing, socialist inclined country deliberately pushing their people across the border.

The other concern is with other nationals who come here as covert terrorists waiting for the code word to arrive for them to do whatever they are suicidally programmed to do.

This problem began in 1965 when Ted Kennedy was able to change the immigration laws. The situation today is part of the long range goal of the Fabian Socialists (just do a google on Fabian Socialism) to make the United States part of a one world government operating under a socialist/communist theory of government/economics that the elitists have the mentally perverted concept of how the people of the world should be governed and made to behave.

Solving this problem will not be easy. Although I voted for Bush and would never vote for a DemoRat/Socialist candidate from the DemoRat/Socialist party, I am terribly disappointed in his approach to this problem.

He has screwed up on several issues and this is one of them. I deeply fear that the American middle-of-the road voter, who does not know their ass from a hole in the ground, is going to turn on the Congress in the coming election and convert it to a DemoRat/Socialist majority with Nancy plasticface Pelosi in charge of the House.

Lord help us. We are in a struggle for the survival of the United States as a constitutional Republic that compares with the gravity of World War II.

I wish that I could see GWB being the great leader that we need at this time, but I just do not see him that way. He has really disappointed me and I think the country is going to suffer as a result of his failure to be a dynamic, Conservative President of the U.S.a.

Have a good day wherever you are....

[manwiththehands]

Sounds like everything would balance out fairly well. And the best part is: America would be for AMERICANS again.

[Mike Darancette]

Hooked on Jose.

[Hardastarboard]

When labor is expensive, businesses substitute capital. When capital is short, businesses substitute labor. Econ 101. If the "undocumented workers" all went home tomorrow, it would take a while, but businesses would adapt. They always do.

I heard Bob Brinker today talking about how the government needs to be doing more to make sure we have energy sources into the future. I wanted to scream at my radio. Here we have one of the brightest and most able investment advisors of our era talking about Keynesian manipulation of the economy by the government.

The morons in the giant, bloated government bureaucracy can't even keep our borders secure (a task which they are REQUIRED to do by the Constitution), and he thinks they're the answer to our energy situation.

[jerry639]

Or they'd develop machines that can help harvest citrus or even strawberries by shaking the fruit free.

Author of this article should get out of the office more. Then he would realize strawberries don't grow on trees. Pick a lot of strawberries when a kid sure didn't get $10 and hour. Most I was ever paid was 6 cents a box.

[Chewbacca]

If you do away with illegal produce pickers, then industry with develope an automated machine that will work cheaper, longer hours, needing no sleep or lunch breaks that can do the job better.

[Serenissima Venezia]

I think one of the best benefits would be that instead of spending so much money educating children that can't even speak English and who, most of the time, don't get the help at home they need with their schooling, more resources could go towards the upper level kids for a change. Our education system needs revamping as well, with more emphasis on encouraging the smart kids to study math and science. All the emphasis these days is on helping the bottom feeders move up a teeny tiny percentage.

[hattend]

BTTT

"Or they'd develop machines that can help harvest citrus or even strawberries by shaking the fruit free."

Shake, shake, shake that strawberry tree