Illegal to me means I am doing something that is in total violation of the laws that govern our nation. Apparently thats contrary to what most companies operatingin America abide by. These companies employ at will undocumented laborers over legal bonified American citizens. I have no animosity towards any of these people. Its the companies I have great disdain for. We need employment reform to penalize the establishments that circumvent the law to employ unlawful workers. Fine them into bankruptcy if necessary. They are just as illegal as the immigrants they employ. Undocumented workers are in just about every industry working in place of citizens. Robbing us of opportunities for employment. I can hardly find gainful employment due to the overly available undocumented workers absorbing every position vacant. Our economy is suffering from this, citizens of this country are in dire straits due to the lack of jobs. The rich employ Undocumented workers with complete autonomy. We as American citizens have the right to work in America, not first but period.
I hear ya J B. I remember when mama took us up north because Caesar Chavez was having a rally (late 60's, which went on for decades). And my mama being raised in El Paso was quite fluent in Spanish, and even more so in the inequality being afforded the Mexican and migrant workers there in CA. And our family still supports the UFW today (I sent Helen a birthday card last year, only to have her finally pass in June). J B, This is a really old article to me (2010), however, all during this decade as I studied the different businesses here and abroad, the numbers did not change. And 500,000 people is nothing to sneeze at (just in the fields). But I use this article to show that American born laborers are not very excited about excessively long and hot days in the fields. http://www.voanews.com/a/us-farmers-depend-on-illegal-immigrants-100541644/162082.html A sad note here, even though our government recognizes that some 300,000 children are among these laborers, a truer number might be 800,000 across the nation.
But it is a much worse scenario across all industries, some 13 million estimated migrants hold those positions, and I'm still not sure why we cannot correct this. We know they are 81% men, and avg 30 years of age. We know they send the money earned out of the country, and to where. Yet we do nothing to legalize it...a Senator once confided in me that these migrants cannot become citizen's because then they would be taxed and be limited in the amount of hours, therefore making less.
So our country does its share to keep illegal migrant workers actively working, as there are around 232 M of them throughout the globe in various countries. I do not have an answer J B, only frustrations when an American citizen has neither the opportunity nor the government sanction to be protected from those company's which utilize this labor force.
It will be interesting to see what Trump throws around the desk about this when discussed, but I have little faith in our politicians to ever do something right for once. Even here in UT during the early 2000's, our governor was a reformed smoker, and created ordinances to have smoke free parks and shopping sidewalks downtown. However when it came reelection time, it was found out that his servants were illegal immigrants, and he was ousted by the new guy.
I read this week that unemployment is at 10% again in many parts of the nation (I'm thinking 20), and it's funny, no, morbidly irresponsible, that that is exactly the amount of people we need to get back to work. 13 million people! Respectfully, Philip M Brockman