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View Full Version : The illegal alien issue....clear it up for me.




keepitlow
08-01-2010, 01:06 PM
On the surface it seems that anyone here illegally should be deported. But it seems the US of A depends a lot on Mexican workers to harvest food for Americans that don't want to do the grunt work. (That is what I was told anyway.)

If this is the case, do you think it is fair that if a Mexican works hard for 20 years picking crops to feed Americans they should be allowed to apply for citizenship?

What do you think is fair? Or is fairness not an issue and it is just temporary work for Mexicans and when the work is done go home?

Vessol
08-01-2010, 01:13 PM
It's more of a problem of minimum wage and labor laws.

I'm sure many Americans would gladly harvest fruit and other food if it wasn't illegal to do so.

The current minimum wage is set so that farmers will not make a profit if they hire legal workers, unless they have huge subsidies or are part of a huge Ag Business.

Zippyjuan
08-01-2010, 01:19 PM
Not enough threads on the topic already? The US has a weird relation with immigrants. We both need and want them but they also make easy targets to blame for problems. We like cheap food and US citizens would not for the most part be willing to do that backbreaking work for the same price.

I agee with not offering amnesty or benefits like drivers licenses or social benefits (they aren't elgible for things like Social Security or Medicare but states may offer benefits). But I do disagree with using them as a scapegoat like polititians in Arizona are. They cry about a wave of immigrants (the numbers of immigrants is actually down) and rising crime (which has also been declining for several years and is below the national average even) and some charge they are "stealing the American Dream- how can you steal a dream? People come here because they want to be a part of the American Dream, not to "steal it").

Will immigrants still come if we increase the number of people guarding the border? The money we spend on it has tripled over the last ten years or so but still people come. We build a wall for hundreds of miles at the cost of billions of dollars. Still they come. You could get rid of all the benefits offered and still they will come. More people die trying to enter the US in a year than the total number of US soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Getting to the US entails great risk and cost- people pay more than a years income for the chance. Still they come. Why? Because it is better than where they come from. A person from Mexico can make as much in one day here as a month back home. That is what it is about- not to make babies and leach off the US government. Opportunity to lead a better life. And that is the American Dream.