There is much to be said about illegal and legal immigration. One of the biggest arguements is the loss of jobs for American citizens within their own country. Employers are more than eager to hire an immigrants for a job, knowing money will be saved. American citizens have employment rights in their country. They have rights to minimum wages, overtime, holiday pay, sick pay, possibly medical insurance, and many other benifits. American employers have found by using immigrants they can demand more hours for less pay and no benifits. For an employer it seems to be a ” win win” situation.

Employers will pay the illegal immigrant wages in cash, bypassing federal and state tax witholdings. The immigrants do not pay taxes to help support schools, hospitals, and more, but they will obviously use these services, creating a deficit in public services and resources. Immigrants who are legal after paying taxes, tend to send their earnings back to their families in Mexico, thus another monetary resource is lost for the U.S.

The lack of taxes paid and the resources used by illegal immigrants can create havoc within the most stable economy. 12 million extra hungry mouths to feed is crippling the United States, even more so now, when they are struggling to feed their own during economic crisis. The earnings not spent in the U.S. by legal immigrant workers also cannot be counted as a resource to America.

My questions aren’t about whether or not immigration is affecting Americas way of life. I can not and will not claim blindness or ignorance to the obvious. I am curious about the employement issue. Are many of the jobs being taken REALLY wanted by American citizens?

My wife is American. She was born and raised by two very loving, extremely hardworking, sacrificing, union employed parents. My wife was taught “An Honest works pay for an Honest worked Day” and is deeply hurt and concerned by the crisis she is seeing among her family and country. She has explained to me the threat to American Unions caused by illegal and legal immigration and has explained to me many other employement opportunities being lost to immigrants.

My wife also believes our children should not only be provided every academic opportunity we can offer, but also must be taught to work. She is a firm believer in teaching and practicing a strong work ethic and reminding our children that nothing comes free in this world. Our oldest child once thought a college education was unimportant UNTIL my wife found him a job in the next town clearing land in the blistering heat with a machete for 14 hours.
(On the bright side, it took only one “normal Mexican” work day for our child to decide he was not only willing, but ready to begin college immediately. He is now entering his third year of Med school)
She is not a woman who sees employment or employees in terms of “good or bad”, “worthy or unworthy”, knowing how to work and having some type of employment to keep food on the table is what matters in her eyes. Period. My wife would NEVER, however, force or even allow one of our children to willingly work one of the many jobs immigrants work with joy in the United States. I don’t see many Americans in uproar nor do I see them begging for the opportunity to work in American slaughter houses, sweat shops, or produce crops. These jobs are eagerly accepted by legal and illegal immigrants.

Years ago in California, crops were raided and all immigrants were deported. It was harvest and farmers could not risk losing their crops, they had to act fast to replace the immigrants lost. With the help of the government, bulletins were placed throughout the state, newspapers, and unemployement agencies. In less than a week, crops were being harvested by american citizens, within another week the farmers began to lose their crops as their new employees no longer came to work. The amount of physical work, the hours and the harsh conditions were simply too undesirable to maintain American crop pickers.

I’m curious as to what is considered acceptable employment for an immigrant, I won’t even place value on legal or illegal, because frankly, I think you and I both are against the illegality issue. Simply what is “allowable”? Is it okay to work jobs of extreme importance to the United States, but the average American does not want? If so, there is a problem there as well. Eventually, in every trade worked, new skills are learned.

A simple crop picker or slaughterer may eventually obtain enough skills to become a supervisor. Being a supervisor isn’t a dirty job and may be of interest to an American. An immigrant who started in construction clean up may eventually learn enough and prove himself worthy of becoming a construction worker, then a supervisor, then he may open his own construction firm. That’s where it starts to get sticky, now we are talking about “GOOD” jobs.

I’m not trying to offend Americans nor condone immigrants, I am simply curious about the employment aspect of immigration. Is it okay to work the undesirable jobs? Sould there be a special clause stating the immigrant is not allowed to learn new skills, or if they do learn, cannot use them for possible advancement? Should legal immigrants after paying their taxes be forced to spend a government decided percentage of their earnings in the U.S., before sending money to their families?

I have read the history. The United States managed these jobs and more on their own before immigration became an issue. The question at hand is if they are WILLING to go back to those “subhuman” duties in order for employers to return employment to their rightful American owners.