Posted on 12/22/2006 4:54:19 AM PST by Liz
One of the hoariest cliches in the immigration debate is that illegal aliens in the workforce "do the jobs Americans won't do" - hence the need for a general amnesty......Vicente Fox said it....President Bush has referred to "good, honorable, hardworking people here doing jobs Americans won't do" as he tried to drum up support for his "path to citizenship" ........
But is the conventional wisdom true? Last week, as part of a broader ID theft and illegal-document probe, ICE agents raided Swift & Co. plants in six states - rounding up hundreds of illegal workers. Yet the plants managed to stay open - albeit with serious manpower shortages. The Rocky Mountain News reports, "The line of applicants hoping to fill jobs vacated by undocumented workers.....was out the door."
......25,000 showed up to apply at Wal-Mart outside the Chicago city limits. Even in this good economy, many Americans are working hard to find jobs...
....most poor immigrants - legal or otherwise - work hard .....But it is almost a libel on the industriousness of American workers - to blithely say that a liberal immigration policy has little impact on employment or wages because the jobs being taken are ones "Americans won't do."
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
He does 90% of the lawns in the neighborhood because he is quick, efficient and polite and I can't even maintain a mower for what little he charges. Last week, he showed up at the house with a poinsetta to thank us for our business.
I added up all the lawns he does here in a day and figure that the kid is probably clearing at least $30 per hour after expenses; but I don't resent it because he's saving me time and money.
Now, I suppose if I thought like Swift packing, I could probably buy his little company, replace him with an illegal, pay the illegal $10 and pocket the $20 difference.
Our government disagrees.
Press Conference - December 20, 2006
THE PRESIDENT: I don't know if you've paid attention to the enforcement measures that were taken recently where in some of these packing plants they found people working that had been here illegally, but all of them had documents that said they were here legally -- they were using forged documents, which just reminded me that the system we have in place has caused people to rely upon smugglers and forgers in order to do work Americans aren't doing.
If he makes $100.00 an hour, great for him. He's a citizen with a small business, that's the way it's supposed to work. I usually hire high schoolers to do mine. I figure it helps pay for gas and fun. They can do it at their convience. Heck, my brother started mowing lawns at 12, by the time he got his drivers license he bought himself a brand new car.
We had a couple of kids in our old neighborhood who did that. Some company with illegals came into the neighborhood and undercut their prices. I was one of 3 people out of a neighborhood of over 150 homes that didn't give in and use illegals (or do it themselves). So, he went out of business. I decided to cut it myself.
I went to the grocery store a few months later, and one of the guys was there bagging groceries. I asked him what happened, and he looked at me and said "Doing the jobs Americans won't do? Do I not look like an American?" I knew exactly what he meant.
Paul
(Late reply due to the holiday break. ;) Merry Christmas.)
Hi...I still wish that someone would file suit against DHS. One huge class action suit for failing to enforce our immigration laws, and against the Feds for 'encouraging' illegal immigration. There's got to be a way to keep them stuck and unable to move forward with CIR, because we can be damn sure they are going to enforce THOSE laws. Any thoughts?
Bush has been insulting us over illegal immigration for quite sometime now and it started with the Minutemen being referred to as Vigilantes. If that wasn't a HUGE red flag, I don't know what is...except perhaps the constant 'validating' of them and then iniviting illegals to expand the ranks of our military in exchange for that path to legalization. If that is his idea for the solution to increasing the size of our military, I can't wait to hear his justification for that one. Right now its "hardworking illegals doing the Jobs Americans won't do"....is the next, "hardworking illegals fighting for the country Americans wont?" Will he insult the entire freeking military and their families!! sheesh
If what he was doing was 'right' there would be no need to be dishonest about shamnesty not being amnesty and our borders would be secured instead of insisting that "in order to secure our borders, we MUST have CIR". I could at least respect him somewhat if he were upfront and honest about his intentions rather than the lying and misleading.
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