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Trump and his supporters insult them and demonstrate little understanding or appreciation for what this labor force means to Americans, but now we'll all begin to better understand I think...
“Every day, the food we eat, the dairy products, the wine, the berries and veggies — it all passes through the hands of undocumented immigrants,” said Gutiérrez. “Every American is complicit in the reality that we depend on agriculture, and agriculture depends on immigrants, but we have not allowed those workers to come here legally nor allowed them to work legally once they have been here.”
One in 10 agriculture workers in California are born outside of the U.S., and more than half are not in the country legally, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
California produces more than 350 commodities; including one-third of the nation’s vegetables and nearly two-thirds of the nation’s fruits and nuts. California also produces 90 percent of the strawberries grown in the U.S.
Seems to me that all Trump is going to end up doing is force the issue of providing for more legalized immigration, more legitimate Hispanic Americans. Can't have it both ways in any case...
In the UK at the moment, they achieve the same situation using poorly paid but legal Eastern European immigrants. For a while it was Poles, then the Poles’ social situation improved and they got Latvians and Romanians instead.
Blame socialism, its tax and overhead burden, that compels American employers to seek undocumented workers.
. . .
Abolish socialism, and you not only end the advantage for hiring illegals, but you also eliminate the allure of freebies that attract parasites who drop anchor babies.
Blame socialism, its tax and overhead burden, that compels American employers to seek undocumented workers.
. . .
Abolish socialism, and you not only end the advantage for hiring illegals, but you also eliminate the allure of freebies that attract parasites who drop anchor babies.
yep. The only society that tries to have unions, social safety net and open borders and think it's going to be copacetic.
“Every day, the food we eat, the dairy products, the wine, the berries and veggies — it all passes through the hands of undocumented immigrants,” said Gutiérrez.
Yes, because greedy growers prefer to rack up profits by taking advantage of these people. Meanwhile the real losers are American workers, who would indeed do such jobs. The wages, and yes, the price of food would go up. '
Frankly, I'd rather pay a bit more for food and see Americans have jobs. It would also have the benefit of perhaps reducing our obesity epidemic if people didn't buy such large quantities of cheap food.
“Every day, the food we eat, the dairy products, the wine, the berries and veggies — it all passes through the hands of undocumented immigrants,” said Gutiérrez.
Yes, because greedy growers prefer to rack up profits by taking advantage of these people. Meanwhile the real losers are American workers, who would indeed do such jobs. The wages, and yes, the price of food would go up. '
Frankly, I'd rather pay a bit more for food and see Americans have jobs. It would also have the benefit of perhaps reducing our obesity epidemic if people didn't buy such large quantities of cheap food.
Everything Cesar Chavez fought for, is used for illegals on a national scale as if they are here under a migrant crop pickers visa.
Maybe if the fed stops goosing the interest rates and let the free markets level things out, maybe if we lower corporate taxes and regulations so that it is cheaper for business to hire Americans, maybe if younger Americans understood the value of hard work and not trying to be a star on YouTube - these businesses wouldn't crave illegal labor.
I'll leave aside the fact that OP seems to have zero knowledge about the fully legal process that ALREADY EXISTS for temporary agricultural work in the US. The problem is that neither the migrants nor (especially) farmers want to go through the process because it's HARD and requires good wages, labor protections, etc.
But anyway, there is an alternative: start investing heavily in agriculture automation. It's already happening for agricultural jobs, and it's a GOOD THING:
The cotton gin helped end slavery by reducing the labor demand. So too will our current ag-slaves be freed. And don't worry leftists, you WON'T have to pay $20 for your kale salad, either. Which is apparently your biggest concerns when it comes to ag worker abuse issues.
Trump and his supporters insult them and demonstrate little understanding or appreciation for what this labor force means to Americans, but now we'll all begin to better understand I think...
“Every day, the food we eat, the dairy products, the wine, the berries and veggies — it all passes through the hands of undocumented immigrants,” said Gutiérrez. “Every American is complicit in the reality that we depend on agriculture, and agriculture depends on immigrants, but we have not allowed those workers to come here legally nor allowed them to work legally once they have been here.”
One in 10 agriculture workers in California are born outside of the U.S., and more than half are not in the country legally, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
California produces more than 350 commodities; including one-third of the nation’s vegetables and nearly two-thirds of the nation’s fruits and nuts. California also produces 90 percent of the strawberries grown in the U.S.
Seems to me that all Trump is going to end up doing is force the issue of providing for more legalized immigration, more legitimate Hispanic Americans. Can't have it both ways in any case...
If only 10 percent of ag workers are immigrants, and only half of those are here illegally, then it sounds like to me you and the author of this piece are greatly exaggerating the importance of illegal immigrants to agriculture production.
All else being equal a country with more people is going to have a bigger economy than a country with fewer people. (This is really not rocket science)
However, If illegal immigrants use more government services than they pay in taxes, there is also a fiscal cost.
The key is to make sure there is not a surplus of unskilled workers relative to the number of jobs available.
Unlawful immigrants (illegals) at present do not have access to means-tested welfare, Social Security, or Medicare. This does not mean, however, that they do not receive government benefits and services. Children in unlawful immigrant households receive heavily subsidized public education. Many unlawful immigrants have U.S.-born children; these children are currently eligible for the full range of government welfare and medical benefits. And, of course, when unlawful immigrants live in a community, they use roads, parks, sewers, police, and fire protection; these services must expand to cover the added population or there will be “congestion” effects that lead to a decline in service quality.
Long story short, illegal immigration generally increases GDP but it has the potential to depress wages for unskilled workers IF an economy is poor OR if the ratio of unskilled workers to skilled workers is unhealthy. There is also a substantial fiscal cost to illegal immigration.
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