Illegal immagrants

Living in farm country, I have seen how they bring a lot of them in from Mexico, El Salvador ect. by the bus loads to work on the farms. A lot of people assume these are illegal’s. They are not. Yet some of them do wind up staying in this country illegally. If they had to pay min. wage to these workers our produce would be outragous. Imagine paying $6 for a single tomato. My grandfather came here from another country. He came through Ellis Island. He gained citizenship. America was the land of opportunity. It welcomed people from all lands. After all America commercialized the American dream it still does. I can see people wanting to come to this country to make a better life for themselves. Most people when you say illegal immigrant thinks automatically of latin dissent. That is not true. It is from all countries. The only problem I have with it all is the programs they offer of lower loans, easier business loans and setups. I think that without going to the dept. of immigration and applying for a greencard to gain citizenship legally that these people should not be able to gain employment, rent or own property, or have any kind of services or programs be at their disposal. If I were to go to another country that is how it would be for me. I don’t think we should lock people out, yet I also think they should do things the right way. I realise I sound a bit wishy washy on the subject. Yet that is my opinion on it. I think if they did it that way it would work. It is very difficult to gain citizenship in this country.

Butterfly, we almost agree… But not on everything. You are right, we should not be allowing illegals to work in this country. That alone should be enough to prevent them from coming here without going through the legal process. It would be way to prohibative to expect housing and other services to be the immigration police. Employees who knowingly hire illegals should be a felony. Right now it is a slap on the wrist, and even that is not enforced.

The bottomline, if there are no jobs here, they won’t come. But the fault does not lie with the immigrants, it is with the employers who want the cheap labor.

As far as not paying minimum wage (to anyone), I think that is a huge mistake. You should have to make sure they are legal, and if they are legal, the law still applys to them. Paying $6 for a tomato is not going to happen. By keeping wages down, it hurts the entire economy. There is no job an american won’t do for a fair wage. And $7.15 is barely fair, anything less is criminal.

I think they should be in the US. They do jobs that most people won’t do. I don’t understand why they are making mexicans a big deal. We have all types of races in the US, why just discriminate them, what did they do to use. I want them to stay here and get citizenship.

Butterfly, I understand about migrant workers. My point is that we can not have a secondary class of people who are allowed to be paid less just because of their ethnicity. It is just wrong. In the long run, higher wages are good for everyone. Lower wages just means more profit for corporations.

jimahl…Your about numbers. $7.15 an hour x 200+ workers = V amount of dollars. Put in cost for water, fertilizers and maintainence. You have W amount of dollars. That is the bottom price you can sell at market with no profit. Transporter A has to take product to grocer. Transporter A requires requires X amount of dollars. Grocer B requires a profit They add why amount to = final cost being Z So V + W + X + Y = Z. And Z does not amount to the $2.99 lb. price we are paying now. These are called seasonal and migrant workers. They are legal to come and do work here. It was an agreement between the two countries, along with other countries. It is a way to keep costs down. There is even a union for them.

Well said, butterfly. Gaining citizenship in the US is easier than in almost any country in the industrialized world, and we accept more refugees and asylum seekers than the rest of the industralized world combined. If you come here and want to stay, you should be willing to do a little work, put in a little time, learn English, and go through the process. If you don’t want to do that, you should be deported.