Maria Bartiromo calls for massive immigration

[bobbyw24]

* $3.4 billion a year to educate illegal immigrant children and the U.S. born children of illegal immigrants.
* $290 million a year on unreimbursed health care for illegal aliens.
* $90 million a year to incarcerate criminal illegal aliens.
* The total represents an annual cost to each of Florida’s native-born headed households of $678.

The cost study also determined that the illegal alien population in Florida is now 950,000 persons. This represents 7.3 percent of the national total illegal alien population, and it is the nation’s fourth largest concentration of illegal aliens after California, Texas and New York. It is also about 5.2 percent of Florida’s overall population.

The Zogby poll found that:

* 71.3% of Florida voters say illegal immigration has a negative impact on the state. Only 14.4% believe it has a positive impact on Florida.
* 83.5% of Florida voters believe illegal aliens have a negative impact on the state budget, versus only 7.9% who believe their impact is positive.
* 57.5% believe illegal immigration should be reduced through better enforcement of immigration laws. Only 36% of Florida voters favor amnesty or legalization for current illegal aliens.
* 68.6% of Florida voters want worksite immigration enforcement to continue. Only 21.1% support the Obama administration’s decision to curtail worksite enforcement.

[bobbyw24]

by Emily Bazar, USA TODAY

Growing ranks of U.S. citizens are heading to street corners and home improvement store parking lots to find day-labor work usually done by illegal immigrants.

The trend is most pronounced in regions where hot construction markets have collapsed, says Abel Valenzuela Jr., a professor of urban planning at the University of California-Los Angeles.

"You had many, many unemployed construction workers who found themselves without any permanent or stable work," he says. "Some of them have gone on to seek employment by standing on street corners alongside immigrant workers."

DESPERATION: More seek day-labor jobs, but work is scarce

Day laborers gather at high-traffic spots such as busy intersections and home improvement stores, looking for pick-up work such as painting, laying bricks or landscaping. Contractors and homeowners describe the jobs and negotiate pay on the spot.

Valenzuela estimates the proportion of U.S.-born day laborers has at least doubled since he released a report in 2006, when his research showed they made up 7% of the day-labor workforce. At that time, Valenzuela estimated 117,600 people were looking for or doing day-labor jobs on any given day. Illegal immigrants were 75% of the day-labor workforce; the rest were legal immigrants.

"It's becoming more ethnically diverse. On the corners, I've seen white people, I've seen African Americans and a lot of Mexican Americans," says Pablo Alvarado, executive director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network. "When unemployment benefits run out, I expect to see more."

Among the communities seeing an increase in U.S.-citizen day laborers:

•Tucson. Staff members at Southside Presbyterian Church, which runs a center where workers can connect with people offering work, have been seeing more U.S.-born people looking for jobs in 2008, says church elder Josefina Ahumada."We would say, 'Hi, how are you?' and we would learn that this is somebody who just got laid off."

•Arlington, Va. Construction workers recently laid off are showing up at the day-labor hiring site run by the Shirlington Employment and Education Center, says executive director Andres Tobar: "We're seeing people who hadn't come to our center before who are legally here and U.S. citizens, and who are skilled workers and can't find work."

•Los Angeles. Citizens are replacing immigrant day laborers who had trouble finding work and returned to their home countries, says Antonio Bernabe, senior organizer of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles.

"These are people who used to have permanent positions," he says. "It's happening everywhere

[MelissaWV]

Oh my bad... I didn't realize the OP was about illegals leeching off of the welfare state...

[Brian4Liberty]

Originally Posted by krazy kaju

Yes, supply and demand apply to the labor market. That's why we should have free immigration. That way, when unemployment rises and wages fall, less immigrants come to the US, and when employment rises and wages rise, then more immigrants come to the US.

Nice in theory, not so nice in practice. It's a race to the bottom. That theory might work if every country in the world were 100% free, and had exactly the same laws (across the board, not just labor laws). People leaving other countries don't care about the economic condition in the US. They are trying to escape far worse conditions where they are coming from.

The middle-class is being destroyed. The oligarchy is taking more than ever. They love more workers, specifically to lower wages and make them easy to control. Both legal and illegal immigrants have a huge threat hanging over their heads until they become citizens (which either takes a very long time, or not at all). At what point do you re-examine a theory and determine that it isn't working in practice? Only when you are personally out of work and homeless?

[Brian4Liberty]

Originally Posted by MelissaWV

There are quite a number of immigrants who come here to buy up cheapo properties. Not every immigrant is poor, just the ones that make the news The thing is, they are only coming for the deals and to snatch up vacation homes in some cases.

Yep. I know an Indian couple that bought a million dollar house for cash. A lot of Chinese, especially those that left Hong Kong to come to the west coast bought homes with cash too.

As for the bubble and easy debt, I met a Chinese guy who had bought 20 houses with no money down during the bubble. A couple of others were trying to match him. These were fresh off the boat immigrants, not Chinese Americans. That type of activity certainly can drive up prices, but it won't happen now (unless easy loans come back). And their stated plan was to just go back to China if they got in legal trouble. Today, I think they are surprised that they could engage in those activities with no legal ramifications (especially the liar loans).