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Originally Posted by Justinian";p="
My proposed theory on how to deal with illegal immigrants? Shoot em in the head. It always worked in South America.
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Hmmmm...No.
Let’s conserve this thread space to rational and mature suggestions. TIA.
In regards to the above numbers I quoted, the illegal immigrant workers in the agriculture industry are incorrect...and in fact...overstated. 24% of all farmer workers is irrelevant if you don’t have the total number of farmers that were surveyed (which that source did not). So I went searching for other sources:
Ripe crops languish in the fields
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”The number 1.25 million represents about 50 percent of the agricultural workforce,” Feinstein noted.
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1.25 million illegal agricultural workers according to the
reputable Diane Feinstein.
Some memes never die
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From the L.A. Times and Rice University’s Professor Donald Huddle: “Less than 2% of illegal aliens are picking our crops but 29% are on welfare.”
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Using cis.org statistics: 2% of 12 million is
~250,000 illegal agriculture workers.
Washington Times: Senate confronts immigration, April ‘05
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The Senate will vote tomorrow on the first major changes in immigration policy in a decade, including a measure legalizing up to 1 million illegal-immigrant agriculture workers and dramatically changing two of the nation's temporary-worker programs.
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1 million illegal immigrant agriculture workers according to a Senate bill that would “legalize undocumented agriculture workers”.
NPR: Study Details Lives of Illegal Immigrants in U.S.
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More than 10 million illegal immigrants are thought to live in the United States. The overwhelming majority are Hispanic; most are from Mexico. A new report from the Pew Hispanic Center examines where and how these undocumented immigrants live and work.
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Illegal immigrants can be found working in many sectors of the U.S. economy. About 3 percent work in agriculture; 33 percent have jobs in service industries; and substantial numbers can be found in construction and related occupations (16 percent) and in production, installation and repair (17 percent).
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3% in agriculture of the 10 million noted is
300,000 illegal immigrant agriculture workers. From the Neo-Con organization of NPR.
So it ranges anywhere from
250,000-1.25million illegal immigrant agriculture workers. Even if you overestimated and claim that
2 million illegals are doing the spotlight job newly named “A job Americans won’t do: Agriculture” its still pathetic when you compare it to the
3,687,000 American Citizens who are either on welfare, are non-violent prisoners, and/or are homeless (which typically includes jobless).
That’s not to say that
all of those 3,687,000 citizens who’re capable of work
should be utilized in that specific sector. But to claim that if we don’t have a guest worker program, and constantly allow a serf class to flood our farms, that the industry will collapse and we’ll be paying $10 for a head of lettuce is absolutely ridiculous.
New interesting statistics I found while looking for correct ag-workers : illegal population percentage:
Guestworker Programs: A Threat to American Agriculture
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This is not to say there has been no growth in agricultural labor productivity. In fact, between 1960 and 1994, the quantity of farm output doubled, while farm employment shrank by 57 percent.
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There is little doubt that fruit and vegetable production could survive, and thrive, without importing foreign workers, whether illegals or guestworkers. In fact, even during World War II, at a time when 16 million Americans were in uniform, there was no economic rationale for the importation of foreign workers. As William and Mary historian Cindy Hahamovitch has shown, the Bracero program was instituted at that time, not to ensure the continued production of food, but to prevent wage increases and possible unionization after 20 years of rural depression.
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Has Illegal-Immigrant Favoritism Pushed African-American and Teen Unemployment to the Back Burner?
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The three charts at the end of this post from the Bureau of Labor Statistics should be cause for concern.
They show the unemployment rates for Blacks (African-Americans), all teens, and African-American teens during the past 10 years.
Each low unemployment-rate point achieved in 2000, when the overall unemployment rate reached its low point of 3.8%, was much lower than it is currently. Specifically:
-The Black/African American unemployment rate is 1.5% point higher (8.5% currently, 7.0% in April 2000). The percentage of African-Americans who are unemployed is still 21% higher (8.5/7.0) than it was at its low point in 2000.
-The teen unemployment rate is 3.4% point higher (15.7% currently, 12.3% in June 2000). The percentage of teens who are unemployed is still 28% higher (15.7/12.3) than it was at its low point in 2000.
-The Black/African American teen unemployment rate is 10.4% point higher (30.4% currently, 20.0% in April 2000). The percentage of African-American teens who are unemployed is still 52% higher (30.4/20.0) than it was at its low point in 2000.
If the 2007 unemployment rates in the these categories were the same as they were in 2000, the overall unemployment rate would be about 0.3% lower, and much closer to its 2000 low.
But why are the three unemployment rates just cited so much higher? What is present in 2007 that wasn't present in 2000?
How about perhaps 3.5 million or more (using a conservative estimate of 500,000 per year) additional low-skilled illegal workers who have entered the country since then, taking jobs away from relatively lower-skilled African-Americans and definitely lower-skilled teens -- jobs that African-Americans and teens could have and would have done?
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