There’s no such thing as an illegal alien who does honest work. Every dollar they take out of the free market is being stolen from some American citizen who should have that job.
I should know. I have a small business in the building trades, and have had to compete with these invaders for almost two decades now.
My wife and I have calculated that they’ve stolen at least a million dollars off our family’s table in the last ten years alone. As a consequence, we’ve lived a much reduced standard of living than we should have, over that time.
We’ve had to lower our prices by nearly 50% since 2006, just to stay competitive enough to stay alive. Have you taken a 50% pay cut over the last ten years? I have, so spare me the bleeding heart political spin about these heathen thieves.
When I want a contractor to fix my house, free enterprise says I have the freedom to do business with whomever I want.
The government comes in and says they have to be licensed. The union comes in and says they have to be union.
Those are modifications of free enterprise which makes it less free.
The same way if you tell me whom I can and cannot do business with.
Many times I’ve posted on FR (and elsewhere) my experience where a hail storm damaged 100% of roofs and 50% of siding in a subdivision of 10,000 homes in Chicago’s suburbs. Insurance companies paid big money, no questions asked, no inspection.
Contractors signed up homeowners and looked for workers. They advertised in the paper, on TV and radio. They went to unemployment offices, government jobs agencies. The only requirements were show up for work sober, not high or hungover and ability to climb a ladder to a suburban split-level with a gentle slope. They were willing and actively searching for ex-cons and others with no experience if able to climb a ladder.
They could not find a single natural born citizen willing to work. They hired immigrants, illegal, legal and naturalized. Mostly illegal Poles/Ukranians who entered on Tourist visas did the siding. Mexicans did the roofs.
Many of them went on to start their own construction companies and in turn hire people themselves.
I’ve seen the same thing in IT where a big IT shop tries to staff up big projects and just can’t do it with citizens. I’ve contacted many former co-workers on unemployment comp and encouraged them to take the six figure IT jobs they were qualified and paid as well as the ones they previously had when we worked side-by-side. Their stories included:
My wife is working. When my comp runs out I’ll get a job and my wife will collect unemployment (a Rush fan).
I took a class in a different technology but have no experience in it. I will only take a job in that different technology and only for a higher pay than the six figures I was making at the former place with the technology in which I have much experience and for which there is big demand. Its not my fault there are no jobs in the technology I just adopted.