Much to my chagrin, my family were among the first to start hiring illegals (mojados) back in the late 60’s. I asked my father and my uncle what the deal was and they repsonded that with all of the ‘whites’ getting, and living off of welfare, there weren’t enough Americans willing to work as hard as the illegals.
I didn’t care at the time as I was about to go off t SE Asia and kill Godless Commie Bastards, but three years later I was back and working in the family bidness.
Here’s what I saw. We had a whole fleet of flatbed trucks going around the nursery and a crew would assemble the plants to fill an order. Ever so often, one of the drivers would rev the engine so high he would damage it.I would fly into a rage and be ready to hit the b@st@rd up along side of the head until either my father or uncle would remind me that 1) this wasn’t the Army, and 2) most of these guys had been driving a burro cart a year before, and 3) I should go easy.
They were making the same excuses for this 35 years ago.
And yes, I said why don’t we pay more and get Americans to work for us. We tried it. It was a disaster. The Americans we could get at a competitive pay scale were a bunch of STD-ridden, dope-smoking, throw-abouts that were as much trouble to deal as the Mexicans.
I got out of it in ‘75 and have never hired, ‘knowingly’ an illegal since.
Of course, what are the odds of politicians actually dealing with the root problem?