US laws were specifically written to protect transient laborers from unfair labor practices, which were degrading and humiliating for farm workers, both domestic and those who worked via a legal work permit system.
Your initial post mentioned maids and gardeners.Cheap household help or "servants" are not considered a compelling national need and so the federal government does not have a clear cut policy to allow you to create your own class of inexpensive imported household slaves.The USA also does not have specific laws to allow the market economy system to be subverted by illegaly imported laborers to generate additional profit to meatpackers,construction workers, etc.
The farmworker strawman is exactly that, a strawman argument.
Any USA citizen who hires an illegal alien is part of the problem.I will drop a dime to the INS if I suspect your "maid" is illegal.I know some citizens by birth, and a few legal immigrants, who work in household cleaning, or other low skill positions.These are some of our hardest working and most vulnerable citizens.They deserve the full protection afforded by our laws. Employers who think the laws are for someone else,and are hiring illegals to save a few dollars, have no legal or moral excuse or defense.
I am not a fan of unions.But as long as employers, small and large, feel free to ignore the laws of the USA,in a shortsighted search for temporary profit, I can not call for their abolishment.
I have no household slaves. I never defended illegal immigration although in some cases an illegal can be better than certain legals. I'm talking about potential violence at the border ---with people getting shot at. You can't really say you could stand at the border and shoot some 60 year old woman trying to get to her maid job. Or could you shoot at some 35 year old man who just wants to pick onions and be paid? There's better ways to stop the problem than violence I should hope.
Luckily for me I don't have a maid so you don't need to call up INS on me. If I had one how would you know anyhow that they were illegal or not? Call INS on me anyhow saying you saw a Mexican on my property? What if it was just one of my legal friends? Or an illegal that I didn't hire but was on my property with my permission? The government has better ways at overcoming this problem and that's what I'd like to see happen instead.
Sarasdad is a lucky man.
I get tired of the old "prices will rise without illegals" argument.
There are many farmers and companies that utilize the “H” visa, and they can still compete it the market place.
The folks using illegals, do so to increase their profit margin.