Sorry but outside of rural America and the iron belt cities that are on the decline, this is simply not the case anymore. In the wealthier suburban and urban regions it is extremely difficult to hire ANY American for certain jobs. Sad but true....so if you know of some Americans who are set to pack their bags and do labor intensive jobs, tell them to head to any growing metropolitan area.
You're exactly right. These threads usually devolve into vicious arguments between posters from the rural Midwest and South vs. posters from urban/suburban California and New York. But both are telling the truth as they perceive it.
The crux of the matter is that illegals who have been let in to meet the gardening/daycare/farming needs of wealthier "elites" are increasingly moving into Middle America and taking over jobs that Middle Americans are willing to do. They aren't stopping in California's Central Valley to pick lettuce - they are headed straight to Iowa and Arkansas to take jobs away from lower middle class whites.
Many urban/suburbanites don't perceive any real problem - their needs are being met, the illegals live in ghettos well away from their gated communities, they don't know anybody in Iowa and Arkansas except Aunt Millie (and she's one of those nutty fundamentalists that they came to California to get away from, anyway), and their kids were never going to do that kind of work to begin with.
The Middle Americans, in turn, are livid over the job "theft", gang violence, and social decay the illegals are bringing to their communities, but their voices are being ignored in Washington. Bush hears and relates to the urban/suburbanite position, and since that's where the campaign cash comes from, he and the entire Republican Party are turning a deaf ear toward other viewpoints. Democrats do the same thing, but may be smart enough to throw a little of that patented "working families" rhetoric toward displaced Middle American workers just before the election.
The logical solution is probably unconstitutional: allowing each state to treat illegals differently based on their own perceived need for labor. If California needs the workers, they can ignore immigration status as long as their citizens are willing to absorb the costs; if Iowa doesn't, they can detain any illegals they find for immediate deportation.