Americans are. The illegal alien who beats an American out of a job was probably up against a pretty poorly-educated American without much motivation.]
I don't know about motivation, but why should the American loose the job if he is doing it well. Just because he is educated. I sense a bit of 'just poor uneducated, unskilled Americans - they don't matter' attitude here. Well, you might not realize it, but when those people no longer have a job - we have to care for them also, as well as subsidize that illegal for things the American worker would not get.
[ The illegals aren't taking good jobs. You don't see them on the assembly line in Detroit. They aren't the tellers behind the counter at your bank.]
Now that is where you are wrong - met a lady a few months ago at an estate sale, she is a bank teller - an illegal. My husband speaks fluent Mexican, so they trust him, but they are not afraid of deportation.
[ Oh, I'm sure there is the exception where some illegal has fooled the system for years and moved into a decent job. But that's not the vast majority of them.]
No, the last time I was back in the area where we used to live, probably 1/2 of the ones I met were very definitely upscale people and they weren't cleaning toilets, or plucking chickens.
Your premise is about 15 years out of date. It really is.
[Anyhow, I realize that I have little chance of making anyone on this thread reconsider their position. For some, this is the most important issue out there, and they won't be satisfied with anything less than mass deportation and troops on the border. I prefer other solutions, and we'll never agree.]
Well you are right - nothing less than full enforcement of the law is right - nothing less. Why should that position change? Right is right. Also, I see the devastation to our education system that is being caused here. I see elderly who are having to sell their homes because their taxes have doubled in the last few years. I see young families struggling just to buy food because taxes are so high. I see law enforcement overwhelmed to the point they just give up. I see our auto insurance doubling because these people are causing damage and not being made to be responsible for it. I see hospital going broke because they use the ER like family doctor - to the point Americans can't get into the ER with a sick child. I see once nice middle class neighborhoods with junked cars and garbage piled up on the curb. I hear everday from people who live where there are many of these people of the drunk driving accidents caused by them, of the constants fights and gunshots from where they live, of the theft done by them.
I am not sure what I should change about my position. I should say all the above doesn't matter because the Republicans are getting contributions from employers of these people, Democrats are going to get their votes, and the employers are able to make out like bandits.
In light of the above - just what position would you suggest I change?
There is no abstract of the jobs lost - someone was doing it when they came - where are all those people? Many of them have managed to survive, though not as well as they were. Many, many of them are on welfare or the wife and children are. You can't seriously be saying that we have imported anywhere from 5 to 12 million, or more depending on who is giving the statistics and no one is put out of a job. No one but those uneducated Americans who do not need a job, anyway. Send the illegals home, and you will find those jobs filled by someone.
No, they weren't. Our economy has grown by trillions of dollars per year. It is not a zero sum situation. We have far more people doing far more jobs than back in the "good old days" that you're remembering.