[carumba]

American wages were suppressed, ...
Here is one thing that I find most puzzling. Wages of US citizens are set at a certain legal level by minimum wage standards. The construction and some services like hotels and restaurants can avoid paying minimum wages by hiring illegals. The conundrum is that this is winked at by the entire system. Wage earners are displaced by illegals who, since they are afraid of losing their jobs by deportation, won't raise a fuss about the minimum wages. So how does increasing the minimum wage level help anybody but the guys who are willing work for less? So the feel good legislation meant to help the poor and the down trodden ends up helping Jose and Pedro from Oaxaca. Joe Sixpack can't work on a drywall crew anymore because the contractor refuses to hire anybody who will make a fuss to the Fair Labor Relations Board. Americans would work in the restaurant, construction labor, janitors, etc. if they could get hired. When politicans imply that these jobs are beneath the dignity of American workers they are disingenuous.

[happygrl]

I have a relative who has worked at A Well Known Buffet type Restaurant in Los Angeles who could not get anything more than minimal hours because of the Illegals who worked there.

They worked off the clock to benefit the management. They did NOT follow sanitary measures. This relative was told that she needed to learn Spanish, as everyone else on the crew spoke it.