AvgSquared: If undocumented workers are a problem, the solution is easy. The undocumented workers are being employed by someone. That employer is getting over big-time and we are all paying for the employer dodging payroll and other taxes.
The solution is easy -- prosecute the employer. If there are no jobs for undocumented workers, then they will not come to the US and most will return to their own country.
You can guarantee that if the wages on the jobs that "Americans do not want" rise high enough, someone will take the job -- that's how markets work.
The "problem" is that corporations largely run the US gov't. Thus, employers who benefit from this system rig enforcement and are not prosecuted. In large ICE (INS) raids, the corporate employers are given advance warning. The corporations get off and the "mobile serfs" who only want to earn an honest buck are the ones that ICE throw in jail.
Now if we send GM and Chrysler to Mexico, how will the Mexicans feel when 10's of thousands of Union members sneak into their country and take those jobs?
zee1ander: Amnesty?... then doesn't that give everyone who has done something against the law a right for amnesty?
I don't get what it is that people don't understand about the word ILLEGAL? There is a right way to do things and a wrong way.
zee
I'm looking at all sides of the issue...they already have proven that your economy can't function without them the day they went on strike...soooooo if you want to send them back and send your economy into a further tailspin...That's entirely up to you...
USThumper: Its not as easy as all that. Most of the illegals are doing jobs that most of the unemployed wont do. Like farm work. But on the other hand they should get here legaly, and they are breaking the law. I dont think there is an easy answer
How about making the unemployed work if there is a job available and if it pays less than their unemployment benifits, then the unemployment fund makes up the difference until their funds are exhausted or they get another higher paying job. Yhre is also the issue that there are 7.9 million on welfare that make little or no effort to work.
Hugz_n_Kissez: I'm looking at all sides of the issue...they already have proven that your economy can't function without them the day they went on strike...soooooo if you want to send them back and send your economy into a further tailspin...That's entirely up to you...
Hugz_n_Kissez: Well what happened when they went on strike for one day that time??? Did they not prove that the economy couldn't function without them???? So in that sense...even though they are illegal...they are actually contributing something by helping to keep the economy going....I think those who are there should be given amnesty.....
Are you sure about that? Nobody around here had any problems when they went on strike!!
zee1ander: I think we should purchase Mexico, which in turn would create a tax base that isn't being tapped here and the boarder fence would be much cheaper because it will be much shorter on the southern tip of Mexico.
Hugz_n_Kissez: Well what happened when they went on strike for one day that time??? Did they not prove that the economy couldn't function without them???? So in that sense...even though they are illegal...they are actually contributing something by helping to keep the economy going....I think those who are there should be given amnesty.....
And how much in taxpayer dollars according to CBO (Congressional Budget Office) do each of those workers cost?
Hugz_n_Kissez: Yes and I am talking over all not specific places...
It's not something that was widely publicized if this is true.. I think they tried to make a point, but I don't think they quite succeeded. If they did, it didn't make many headlines.
Not calling you a liar either.. just so ya know lol.. jus sayin.. they made a HUGE deal out of the day here.. had a big parade, a bunch went on strike.. and nothing came of it.. and around here, we never heard of anything coming of it nationwide.
Hugz_n_Kissez: Yes and I am talking over all not specific places...
I will be honest here hugs I never heard of this eather, and besides it was only one day as you said , that is not enough time for the employers to see they need someone to work so they would have to do it legally , I am in full support of poscecuting the employers
toranoga: With the number of illegal alien workers in this country roughly equal to the number of unemployed legal U.S. workers, should we send the illegals packing, or should they be allowed to stay?
zee1ander: Are you talking about smuggling people into the the states?
zee
No, Im saying if I was making $30 a month and had a chance to sneak to another country and make 50 times that I would do it just to support my family. I knew one young man who happend to be here leagally, who was supporting most of his extended family in Mexico City by working on the farm. You would be suprised at how much they send home to take care of their familys. This particular young man told me that because he was here his sister no longer had to sell herself to eat
jessejess47: you know it is that no one want these jobs or is it that the one offering these jobs do not wish to pay a living wage? Just asking.
It is called a taxpayer subsidy to agribusiness, construction, etc. In Iowa at least, a sanctuary state, the illegals are elligeable for food stamps, rent assistance, health care, etc. and all of that is a taxpayer expense so their employers can pay less.
toranoga: It is called a taxpayer subsidy to agribusiness, construction, etc. In Iowa at least, a sanctuary state, the illegals are elligeable for food stamps, rent assistance, health care, etc. and all of that is a taxpayer expense so their employers can pay less.
well I would think you and I would be in agreement then.
Illegal Immigration's Impact on US Workforce Examined...
Last week, President Bush reaffirmed his support for overhauling America's immigration system to provide a path to eventual citizenship for the estimated 12 million illegal aliens in the country. One of the most contentious issues in the immigration debate is the effect that undocumented workers have on the U.S. labor market.
It is a basic economic principle: the more you have of something, the less it costs. So it would seem to stand to reason that the more workers you have in any particular industry, the less employers will have to pay in wages.
Republican Congressman Steve King of Iowa says illegal immigration is currently proving the validity of that theory, contending that a flood of low-skilled undocumented workers is depressing wages and causing greater unemployment for U.S. citizens who lack a university education.
"The reality is employers hire desperate aliens who will work for much less than Americans, driving wages down and making it impossible for American workers to compete," said Steve King. "And what about the claims that there are jobs that Americans will not do? That claim is a slap in the face to the millions of U.S. citizens who go to work every day, working those very same jobs side by side. [For example], 79 percent of all service workers are native-born."
Representative King, who opposes President Bush's immigration reform plan, sits on the U.S. House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration and Citizenship. He says those who favor granting eventual legal status to millions of undocumented workers are putting the interests of foreigners ahead of those of U.S. citizens.
"The American dream means that you are the driver of your own destiny, and you can work hard to be successful," he said. "But you cannot work hard towards that dream if your job is taken by someone willing to work for lower wages, or if wages in an entire occupation are depressed by illegal immigration."
But do economic data support the congressman's assertion? Not according to the Assistant Secretary for Policy at the U.S. Labor Department, Leon Sequeira.
"Over the past 10 years, foreign-born workers increased from 10.8 percent of the civilian labor force to 15.3 percent," said Leon Sequeira. "Yet during this time the national unemployment rate has declined. It was 5.3 percent 10 years ago, and it has declined significantly to 4.6 percent last year, and most recently - last month - 4.6 percent."
In addition, Sequeira says, wages of non-supervisory workers have risen, on average, nearly nine-percent above the rate of inflation.
But Sequeira was providing macro-economic numbers for the nation as a whole. What of specific industries where undocumented workers comprise a large component of the labor force, such as fruit and vegetable harvesting, hotel and restaurant work, and construction? The picture there is more complicated and nuanced, according to Brown University economist Rachel Friedberg.
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I don't get what it is that people don't understand about the word ILLEGAL? There is a right way to do things and a wrong way.
zee