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On one side I do feel badly for the ones who have been here for decades and have commited no crimes other than take advantage of a very lazy and lax American policy of looking the other way for either a voting base for progressives or cheap labor for the greedy. That said, we need to train our American workforce to do these jobs again, welding, machinery, masonry. We can do this and have our returning servicemen employed. The businessmen who have held the carrot out for the illegals should be punished and we should overhaul our broken guest workers programs.
Problem is, as was noted, a lot of them have been there for 20+ years and have experience that the newly hired won't have. So, if they were to hire newbies, they wouldn't start out at $18/hr.
So what? Americans are willing to work themselves up to a higher pay rate. It has always worked that way. When you are a young and hungry American you are willing to start out low just as these illegal workers probably did and worked their way up. It is hard nowadays to find a job that will last 20-30 years. That would be a big plus for our young Americans just entering the workforce.
There is nothing wrong with our guest worker program. The problem is many of those coming across our borders illegally don't want to work or in all likelihood don't qualify. It's much easier to run or swim across the border in full blown labor, birth a defacto "American" and financially rape the American taxpayers for the rest of their lives. The next couple of generations will continue the tradition.
So what? Americans are willing to work themselves up to a higher pay rate. It has always worked that way. When you are a young and hungry American you are willing to start out low just as these illegal workers probably did and worked their way up. It is hard nowadays to find a job that will last 20-30 years. That would be a big plus for our young Americans just entering the workforce.
The so what is that this began a very long time ago. The involved illegals apparently go back as far as the early 80s. In the 80s the view of illegal immigrants was quite different and it was a minor thing...often easily fixed.
So these people end up on the payroll in a more permissive era and simply rode it through. Some may even be able to retire. Likely virtually all could have gone legal in the 90s with little trouble. But they fear the government and are afraid to deal with it. That burned them bad.
I suspect that when they joined the foundry was not considered a good place to work. Certainly not in CA...maybe in Appalachia. So they originally got the jobs because it is difficult, hard and dangerous work and nobody else wanted it.
I suspect that similar steel workers in Pittsburgh were making the equivalent of $40 an hour. And not everybody wanted those jobs.
...It's much easier to run or swim across the border in full blown labor, birth a defacto "American" and financially rape the American taxpayers for the rest of their lives...
A work permit law would solve all of this and our so called government leaders know it....Canada has one that works .Our system only catches them after they get into the jobs and play around with fake Ids. The canada system STOPS them before they get a first paycheck.....think about it
The original post stated “200 workers who could not provide a valid social security number are being laid off.” I have to wonder how many supplied SS numbers that were not valid? I remember an article that ran back in August about child identity theft: Child Identity Theft Takes Advantage Of Kids' Unused Social Security Numbers While I do not know if any of these workers were guilty of this crime - Child identity theft is a growing problem in our country and turning a blind eye on illegal immigration is not helping.
I also have to ask how they paid into the system - if they did not have valid SS numbers? This is the problem with this whole mess. Companies want cheap labor - but that leaves legal Americans with fewer funds to buy their cheaper products. However; in many cases the products are not cheaper and we don’t have the jobs/money to buy. We also have groups of illegal that want/demand the benefits of the legal immigrants and Americans. Plus many are sending money back to home countries - in some cases the money is spent to bring more into our country illegally.
I wish that the new E-Verify legislation is quickly signed into law and that we do not have to worry about more cases like this one.
Sure, and you'll deny that Illegals won't undercut Americans and that certain ethnocentric types will only hire their own racial groups.
This company deserves all the fines and loss of revenue for theri illegal actions.
Those Illegals got tooo comfortable and now have to deal with it.
There are plenty of Americans that would work those jobs, I've known quite a few people that worked at a steel plant in Fontana in the past, so there goes the false notion that Americans can't or won't do the work.
Hopefully these Illegals lose their homes, cars and are destitute soon. Then maybe next time they'll realise they should have followed the laws.
Better yet they can self deport.
In fact by hiring Americans, it's more likely there will be more racial diversity now among those 200 workers. You can almost bet that the 200 illegals were all the same ethnicity, but their replacements can include both blacks and whites, and also other ethnic groups.
Very many of these workplaces where illegals are hired are not at all diverse.
Sure, and you'll deny that Illegals won't undercut Americans and that certain ethnocentric types will only hire their own racial groups.
This company deserves all the fines and loss of revenue for theri illegal actions.
Those Illegals got tooo comfortable and now have to deal with it.
There are plenty of Americans that would work those jobs, I've known quite a few people that worked at a steel plant in Fontana in the past, so there goes the false notion that Americans can't or won't do the work.
Hopefully these Illegals lose their homes, cars and are destitute soon. Then maybe next time they'll realise they should have followed the laws.
Better yet they can self deport.
If people are committing racial profiling in hiring practices, that is a legitimate complaint. As someone who has done hiring before, I can tell you that doing something like that is pretty much automatic firing, but that was for a larger corporation. If it happens at a small, private business... well, that's something different.
They got too comfortable doing what? Working jobs and paying taxes? How awful. If Americans can do the work, they will. This idea that every employment option is in competition with an illegal is just crazy. Bottom line is that if you are the most qualified candidate and you're out there busting your butt to get a job, you will.
Your hope that their lives are destroyed for spending the last 20 years being productive citizens is mean-spirited and just disgusting. I can't imagine the type of mentality it takes to wish that on people who have no history of violent criminal behavior.
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