Forum Post: Illegal Aliens - Good or bad for main street jobs?
Posted 13 years ago on Oct. 11, 2011, 12:15 a.m. EST by MikeyD
(581)
from Alameda, CA
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
I only ask because I used to make a decent wage in construction before all the construction jobs in California were taken over by illegals, and the politicians don't seem to care.
Well, i suppose if there are 11 million illegals here and 13 million citizens need jobs, it would make sense to kick the 11 million out and give what ever jobs they have to citizens that need work.
Companies that hire illegals would run slaves if they could. Illegals, to them, are the next best thing. Americans used to be able to make living wages doing roofing, house-repair jobs - even working as farm hands. No more. BTW this is all AOK w/ both political parties, plus the union bosses - the real enemies of America's middle class.
I wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry when I saw SEIU managed to talk it's members into marching against immigration enforcement. I thought how stupid must these people be.
They are bad.
Illegals are cheap labor and they push down the wages of all unskilled labor.
They're definitely depressing wages in the construction industry here. I harbor no hatred of them, but that is a fact.
They're bad! We're spending millions a day protecting some border over in Afghanistan and not even bothering to make sure there aren't drug gangs and people coming over here illegally. To all of the liberals who call them 'undocumented workers', what about the immigrants who came in here legally, filled out the paperwork, waited in line, and played by the rules? Also, what about our devastated middle working class? How many of them can't find jobs to pay them enough to keep a roof over their head? I don't have much sympathy for Mexico as a nation, because their leadership is just as corrupt as ours, but as a country, they have a ton of natural resources. If they weren't robbing from their people, their citizens could be very successful, like Brazil, for example. Guess it's time for Occupy Mexico City to get rolling.
Some politicians don't seem to care possibly because they employ them to tend the property and clean the house... We need to look at the bigger picture here. If you don't have documentation to be here, you are here illegally and breaking the law. No ifs, ands, or buts. You have no rights. Except the right to be deported back to the country you hold citizenship in. Let's count the ways this could be a drain on our economic, social, and national security position:
1) Not paying taxes 2) Using our healthcare system for free (I know this because I was told by a family member who is a doctor in an ER and he said if you don't have health insurance and can't pay, don't give a SSN) 3) Putting children through our public education system - regardless of being born here or not, if your parents don't have papers, you don't belong in the school. 4) Committing crimes in general, being involved in gangs, selling drugs- and therefore when caught going through our criminal justice system, being put up in our prisons, and being recycled back out into our society. 5) Using free childcare resources 6) On top of all this, many illegals work for cash here to send home to their families elsewhere - thus America is doubly funding other countries before taking care of it's own without even trying...
People can sit there all day and say that illegals do the jobs that Americans don't want. But who did all these jobs before the major influx of illegals? Who???
The bottom line is the government only has so much revenue to keep our public service programs alive. So how could it not be bad for main street and bad for America in general to keep allowing this open door policy? We're leaning towards complete lawlessness in regards to keeping our borders secure and when you have lawlessness and an attitude where you can come here and do whatever you want, you have a place like Mexico, the exact type of place these people are trying to leave.
(I used Mexico as an example only)
It depends, Are there are Americans willing to do those jobs?
But the main problem are not the illegal aliens. The main problem are: A. Jobs going oversee. B. Companies lying to get visas for cheap professionals from outside the USA. This ones are quite legal and are the ones eliminating the good jobs.
I thought my construction job was pretty good. I usually made around $25 an hour on fixed bid work. It was personally rewarding, and yes, I was more than happy to do the job. At 8$ an hour, not so much.
None of these types of immigration issues happens in a vacuum. Politicians make these decisions based on who is going to keep them in office.
Not at issue.
But I actually liked my job as a construction worker, not to mention it was how I made my living.
:) A worthwhile issue for debate, just not a cause of the occupy (from my perspective). Frankly I haven't made up my mind how I feel on this one so I'll leave it to the better (probably lesser) informed to debate.
I disagree. When you consider that my job was sold out from underneath me by politicians who refuse to enforce the laws, and that politicians have been selling out our tech sector for more than a decade with the H1B program(on behalf of Corporate America), I would say it strikes right at the heart of what this protest is about.
You make a compelling argument. And I guess Immigration is up for debate however I missed the point that you were referencing only illegal immigration, which frankly I can't conceive of being beneficial to "main street". Everything in moderation. Its the dehumanizing ranting that tunes this issue out for me; which, of course you are not doing. I enjoyed the years I spent landscaping too, sorry for your loss. H1B for supermodels and shit makes me sick.