Posted on 04/24/2006 4:24:45 PM PDT by HEMICRASHBOX
Illegal immigrants in this country are threatening a massive boycott on May 1, purportedly to demonstrate they are so essential that the U.S. economy would shut down without their labor. On the contrary, such a boycott will expose the lie expressed by President George W. Bush in Cancun, Mexico, that they are "doing work that Americans will not do."
According to the Pew Hispanic Center, illegal immigrants make up less than 5 percent of the U.S. labor force. If every one of the 20 million illegal aliens in our country plays hooky from his job on May 1, the overwhelming majority of those same types of jobs will be worked by millions of U.S. citizens.
All over America, U.S. citizens will flip hamburgers in fast-food shops, wash dishes in restaurants, change sheets in hotels, mow lawns, trim shrubs, pick produce, drive taxis, replace roofs on houses, and do all kinds of construction work. Americans are quite willing to work unpleasant, menial, tiresome and risky jobs, but not for Third World wages.
An employment service in Mobile, Ala., recently received an "urgent request" to fill 270 job openings from contractors who were hired to rebuild and clear areas of Alabama devastated by Hurricane Katrina. The agency immediately sent 70 laborers and construction workers to three job sites.
After two weeks on the job, the men were fired by employers who told them "the Mexicans had arrived" and were willing to work for lower wages. The U.S. citizens had been promised $10 an hour, but the employers preferred Mexicans who would work for less. Employment agency manager Linda Swope told The Washington Times: "When they told the guys they would not be needed, they actually cried ... and we cried with them. This is a shame."
Swope said that employment agencies throughout Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi all face similar problems because an estimated 30,000 men from Mexico and Central and South America, many in crowded buses and trucks, came into those three states after Hurricane Katrina, willing to work for less than whatever was paid to U.S. citizens.
Meanwhile, President Bush signed the Katrina Emergency Assistance Act extending for 13 weeks the unemployment benefits to U.S. citizens displaced by Katrina. Thus employers get the benefit of cheap foreign labor while you and I provide taxpayer handouts to workers whom the government allowed to be displaced from the jobs they were eager to take.
There is no penalty on employers who replace U.S. citizens with illegal immigrants at lower pay. Homeland Security even announced it has suspended the sanctioning of employers who hire illegal immigrants, and President Bush suspended the Davis-Bacon Act, which requires local contractors to pay "prevailing" wages.
A study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research reported that the surge of immigration in the 1980s and 1990s lowered the wages of our own high school dropouts by 8.2 percent. The surge has accelerated since that report was issued. The Congressional Budget Office reported that 60 percent of Mexican and Central American workers in the United States in 2004 lacked a high school diploma.
The Kennedy-McCain-Bush guest worker plan would import more uneducated, unskilled workers, and thereby deny our own high school dropouts (of whom we have too many) the opportunity to get started in building their lives in the labor force. U.S. citizens are threatened that the cost of lettuce will rise precipitously if we don't continue to import Mexican agricultural workers. But a farm worker gets only 6 or 7 cents out of a $1 head of lettuce, so even if the pay doubles, consumers would hardly notice the difference.
On the other hand, the costs taxpayers are forced to pay for social benefits for low-paid workers are astronomical. The National Research Council reports that an immigrant to the United States without a high-school diploma consumes $89,000 more in government services than he pays in taxes during his lifetime.
Low-paid illegal immigrants obviously pay very little taxes, but they cash in on all sorts of benefits paid by other taxpayers, such as schooling for their children, emergency health care, housing subsidies, Earned Income Tax Credit and law enforcement. If the 20 million illegal immigrants are legalized, they will also become eligible for Medicaid, and that's a real break-the-bank prospect.
These figures don't even count the rapidly growing underground economy, in which millions of illegal immigrants are paid off the books in cash. That enables both employer and employee to avoid paying taxes, and enables employers to avoid paying workers' compensation, unemployment compensation, and assorted other taxes.
If the Internal Revenue Service collected all the taxes that should be paid by the underground economy, our current budget deficit would disappear overnight, according to a Bear Stearns study released in 2005. The Americans who pay taxes are giving a free ride to those who are not paying taxes, and a 7-cent increase in the price of lettuce should not be on our worry list.
I drove a taxi for years – and visitors to Hampton Roads preferred Yellow Cab (they refused to hire illegals) because the drivers could actually speak and understand English. My late wife worked several years as a landscaper. Customers liked having people who spoke English. Her boss (owned the company) refused to hire illegals.
Whatever the case, they are here. You can see them at Walmart, restaurants, and other such places.
Yep - but with the FairTax that benefit to illegal hiring goes away, too.
The law is Title 8, Sec. 1325.
BTW, it is viewed even more harshly if you are illegally immigrating into Mexico. Check the links I gave earlier to see how Mexico views such actions against its sovereignty.
Why should Uncle Sugar view the reciprocal differently than Mexico?
CFR's Plan to Integrate the U.S., Mexico and Canada
Globalization: The Final Demise of National Security
Trent Lott said today that he supports McCain for President in '08.
I am under Keyword attack. So hurtful.
That's just 'cause they love ya.
Gutless ... AND stoopid!!!
The major fault in the logic that you and others use is that these Mexicans force their way into the country. The reality is that the US lets them in, allows them in, welcomes them in.
And in more recent times, its not just Mexicans, they are from all over the world. There are 50,000 illegal Irish here.
There is a demographic reality that you can ignore if you want to, but it ain't going away.
I don't. Nor do I care what the country of origin might be - nor if they rode here on Air Force One at the invitation of President Carter. They are (how shall one say this???) ILLEGAL!!!.
I do hope that is clear to you. And I don't agree with your claim that "it ain't going away". There are geting to be a great many voters who are now realizing what the overly-liberal policies of selling our country short and giving it away are beginning to cost us. It must stop.
Wrong again.
I have described the situation as I first observed it as a child, thru-out my life, and continuing today.
Obviously, you would like to blame me because society disagrees with you.
Okay, maybe they just want to appear to be gutless.
My ancestors came to the eastern shores of America in the early 1600's to help settle this land, and their blood flows through my veins. I still fly the flag every single day (have since 911) but I'm getting pretty discouraged watching our pathetic "leaders" give away all that we've worked for. I don't know what the answer is, but staying informed is a necessity. Thank God for the internet.
Perhaps this should fall under anti-competitive dumping laws. Consider that humans are a resource, and Mexico is dumping that resource at below market value to put others out of business. "Preditory dumping" if you will.
This approach could have teeth with the US Trade Commission, as another avenue of defense under the law. Obviously, our elected leaders won't do anything, so perhaps a class action lawsuit against Mexico would. If argued correctly, it could be held up by the World Trade Organization
I think we should try every angle we have. Does anyone see a flaw in my argument? I'd like to streamline it and sent it off to my congress critter and your input would be appreciated.
And yet, Ben, you seem quite willing to accept things as you think they now are (and as you think they were previously).
I'm not and I certainly don't "blame" you, but rather the politicians who have not funcioned to clear up the mess and of the illegals themselves who are knowingly commiting a crime. Those are the two areas to blame, I believe.
And, unlike you, I don't think "society" disaagrees with me - but more likely with you. We'll see how it all shakes down (and I'm sure we don't agree on that either). In the meantime, you might go immigrate illegally into Mexico and get a job so you'd have some first hand knowledge about illegal immigration and how our neighbor handles it. You seem to view it as some benign victimless crime.
As regards the world that is the answer I would give you. Stay informed. Be aware. Having a good Baygen radio is a good idea too in case something happens to the net.
Likewise, if the US had adequate immigration quotas and/or workable guest worker programs, there would be very little need for illegal immigration nor a desire for any one to illegally migrate here.
But we don't, so we do.
And of course, that is the heart of the issue. Whether we will, or whether we won't.
Ben, would you mind telling us what the word "society" means to you?
Poll after poll after poll, over the past several decades, show that the majority of the U.S. taxpaying citizens want the illegal immigrants out of our country. The U.S. taxpayers are "society" to me.
They don't want illegal aliens renamed, reclassified, relabeled, regularized or normalized, etc.. They want them gone.
Hell, there used to be an anti-illegal immigration plank in the Republican Party Platform before Bush and Rove got in there.
It's a few thousand greedy, power hungry, corrupt, spineless, gutless politicians and businessmen that are thwarting "society's" wishes here in America.
Maybe you're referring to high "society" as in the Kennedys, Clintons, Bushes and McCains?
Pigdog doesn't strike me as one that would care if high "society" disagrees with the majority of Americans on illegal immigration.
For the record, me neither.
save
The polling data that I see posted here says something different.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.