I'm with you JP. Growing up in Wyoming we would have shoveled you know what for minimum wage. The problem wasn't the illegal mexicans so much as it was the farmers who would hire these immigrants for the same wage without regard to long hours, breaks or benifits.
These immigrants worked without complaining about being taken advantage of. This made them very desirable to hire over us Americans. We refused to be taken advantage thus unemployed from the fields.
Where did you grow up in Wyo.? We had a sawmill in NE Wyo. (Black Hills)until 1993. Sierra Club and others of their ilk pretty much shut down the logging in the Hills. (I won't get started on THAT issue!) Very few of our employees made over $10/hr. Our daughter still teaches school in Newcastle and since we only live 65 miles across the Hills, we are back in that wonderful state quite often. Now that we are rid of Daschle, western South Dakota is pretty good, too.
What's for the farmers and contractors and restaurants to lose hiring these people? Minimum wage and no benefits seals the deal and keeps these illegals here living 20-30 per dwelling in some instances.