Immigrant farm workers' challenge: Take our jobs

[Fandango 1,439]

Let's consider this for a minute, shall we? Illegals do work on farms. In fact, they make up an estimated 30% of the agricultural workforce. That leaves 70% of that workforce being someone other than an illegal alien. Hard to make a case that only illegals can or would fill those jobs. Then, of course, there's the fact that illegals take jobs in other industries as well. Roughly 25% of the workers in construction, custodial work and the groundkeeping / landscaping are estimated to be illegal aliens. Again, 75% of the workforce in these areas is legal and they are doing these jobs. Then there's an estimated 20% share of illegal workers in the restaurant business vs. 80% of that workforce being legal.

Given these numbers, I'm not sure how the claim can be taken seriously that illegals do the work Americans or lawful immigrants won't do. It simply isn't true. There were reports about meat packaging plants that were raided by ICE which resulted in Americans and lawful immigrants showing up to apply for the jobs done by illegal aliens prior to the raids. Or the resort in GA that was recently highlighted in a thread here. How come? How is it possible that people that are legally able to work here apply for these jobs if the claim were true that illegals fill a void that lawful eligible workers won't fill? It isn't.

+1 and QFT.

[luckytxn 2,263]

True that only illegals will work for that kind of pay and also true that employers can go and hire out of the country a workforce if they can't find someone to work here in the states. The employers should be forced to pay at the least the minimum wage that all the rest of the country is forced to pay. If Americans still don't want to work at that minimum pay then they should be allowed to try to hire legally a workforce for the seasonal work but then they should be forced to leave when that permit is up. There is still nothing ever that makes it OK to just give them legal status to stay because they will work for substandard wages. Once that legality is granted then they will just be allowed to then find work somewhere else at better pay and that will leave the employers then free to hire more substandard pay workers and the process begins anew.