Posted on 02/14/2011 4:04:36 AM PST by Racehorse
Bill Brim is worried about the extra costs he said his fruit and vegetable farm in Tifton would have to absorb if state lawmakers pass tough Arizona-style laws aimed at illegal immigration in Georgia.
Charles Shafer Jr., meanwhile, says the proposed laws could be a step in the right direction, so long as they are enforced here. The Lawrenceville resident said he was forced to shut down his home construction business years ago because he could not compete with others he suspected were hiring illegal immigrants.
Such different views have put state lawmakers in a bind. While they want to curb illegal immigration in Georgia, the lawmakers also are trying to protect the state’s bruised economy. The problem is that the two issues are closely intertwined.
Illegal immigrants come to Georgia mainly to find work. There were an estimated 325,000 of them working in the state last year, according to a Pew Hispanic Center report released this month. That represents 7 percent of Georgia’s work force, according to the Washington-based nonpartisan research group, which uses U.S. census data for its estimates. Only six other states — including Texas and California — have higher percentages.
If all illegal immigrants were to leave Georgia, the state would lose $21.3 billion in economic activity, according to a 2008 study done for Americans for Immigration Reform, a Houston-based, business-sponsored group that supports changes to current immigration law.
At the same time, critics argue illegal immigrants are crowding local jails in Georgia and sapping the state’s taxpayer-funded resources, including its public schools.
(Excerpt) Read more at ajc.com ...
“14 different programs that allow legal farm workers,”
It’s not too difficult to do either. There are several small-time farmers around here who pool together and keep a team of legal, green card Mexicans on their payroll year round.
“If all illegal immigrants were to leave Georgia, the state would lose $21.3 billion in economic activity...”
According to the official audit on June 30, 2010, all business activity in GA was $10,527,184,000, so this appears to be a bogus number.
Incidentally, government activity totaled $30,502,026,000, so it seems GA needs to do some serious cutting of their spending, and a good place to start is kicking illegals off government programs of all kinds.
Just look at California over the past 20 years and you will see exactly what a ‘boon’ illegal aliens are to a state.
The line of Americans looking to leave the state grows ever larger, as the flood of illegals continues to pour in. Politicians who turn a blind eye to illegal aliens are simply corrupt, not ‘compassionate’.
Employers of illegals should gave their citizenship revoked and be deported to Haiti or Sierra Leone.
These leftists are fond of citing “economic activity,” but a fraction of which produces a profit, and ignoring public cash expenditures, a sizable fraction of which leaves the country. Whether or not their presence is actually profitable is not addressed. It may be for some, but those paying the taxes to support them get screwed.
How much of that 21.3 billion in economic activity would still happen if there was a crackdown on illegals? Get rid of the illegals, and there would still be economic activity, but it would be by American citizens doing the work and spending the money instead of the illegals.
“But, what they are very quiet about is the cost to cities and towns which are not reimbursed by the state for expense caused by the illegals”
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That’s EXACTLY correct. If Brim were told he could hire the Mexicans, but would have to pay to transport them to his farm and back to Mexico and pay for ALL the expense of housing and feeding them while here.... He would not be so eager to have them.
I know a landscape / hardscape contractor who closed down recently. He had done close to $40k of work for me (grading/drainage/hardscape) over the last 5-6 years, and his people did really good job. I suspect it was due to a combination of the downturn in the economy plus the fact that he was hiring legal Americans. My take is that he was able to make it with just the illegals as competition, but that in combination with the downturn, that was that. It probably put 6-8 people out of work.
Not only do they overestimate the economic benefit of illegals, and underestimate their costs, but they ignore an important factor.
If there were no illegals to make beds and work at convenience store counters, there would be more teenagers anxious to take those jobs. Not all of the jobs would be lost by losing illegals. A lot of those jobs would be done by teens, retirees, and some of the unemployed. No, welfare queens are not suddenly going to be picking lettuce in the fields, but retirees might just take a part time job working as hotel clerks or 20 years olds might take landscaping jobs, mowing lawns & weeding.
Ping!
What a crock! That would be $66,000 of "activity" per illegal! The average invader sends 60% of their earnings BACK to their home country ($30 billion every year to Mexico alone), and spends much of their grocery bills at off-the-books bodegas and stands run by other illegals. The phony "Americans for Immigration Reform" (so-named to cause confusion with the legitimate FAIR) is a traitorous group that wants to maintain their slave-level wages and distorted profits at the cost of higher unemployment rates for Americans.
anything here?? my head hurts looking at those things...
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