Posted on 06/17/2008 11:57:20 PM PDT by DakotaRed
Portland, Oregon, possibly vying to be the most liberal city on the west coast, recently set up a day labor site for American employers to come and hire Illegal Immigrants looking for work (here and here)
The site opened for “business” Monday, June 16, 2008, with little initial interest from local employers, shy of possible media exposure.
The second day brought a little interest and a local man protesting the city of Portland encouraging Illegal Activity within city limits. He called the Victoria Taft Radio Program this evening to report that for sitting on the curb in the driveway, holding a sign simply saying “NO,” he was arrested and charged with “Disorderly Conduct.”
Photos and links to more info may be found at KPAM.com Victoria Taft (no audio of caller) and The Oregonian.
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There not the least bit shy about breaking the law or encouraging it.
IDIOTS. Do they want their city to become another LA? The stupidity of liberals never fails to astound me.
This is actually a real tough issue for conservatives in Oregon, whom I happen to know a number of, even though I don’t live there myself. As is true of many rural states, Oregon is populated largely by two groups: urban hippie-types in cities with large university populations like Portland, Eugene, and Ashland, and rural conservatives, most of whom work in agriculture. More so than most states, the population is disproportionately either far left or far right. The left, for their typical “reasons” are, obviously, pro illegal immigration. Most of the people on the right, however, who have the standing and resources to be a voice for conservatives, are either connected to or an integral part of the agricultural industry in the much more populous western section of the state, which is largely orchard-based, which means that they are almost entirely dependent on illegal migrant labor. For these businesses to be anti illegal immigration is for them to beleive that they themselves and the communities they support should largely cease to exist. Many are already being severely hurt even by the current administration’s vaguely stronger enforcement and losing workers to more lucrative migrant jobs in- you guessed it- Mexico. Essentially, the loss of illegal immigrant labor forces Oregon’s largest rural (ie conservative) employers to lose business to growers across the border, also damaging the other local businesses who depend on migrants and their money to buy goods and services. The eviction of illegal aliens may be good for America, but it’s financially devastating to the only people in Oregon preventing it from becoming an openly socialist state....
Mr Wenning's son is a Border Patrol Agent in the San Diego area.
Concurred, somewhat....until this part of your statement. It needs it’s own BARF alert...
“For these businesses to be anti illegal immigration is for them to beleive that they themselves and the communities they support should largely cease to exist.”
....and welcome to FR ;)
Thanks....I think....;)
I’m not saying it absolves anyone from their responsibility- I’m just saying that the fact of the matter is, orchards can’t exist as businesses (without being significantly undersold by foreign markets) without illegal migrants, and the communities supported by the orchard industry can’t exist without the current system either. You have to admit, it’s tough to support something that you know will put you and your friends and family out of business along with hundreds of others in your community even if that thing is right for America as a whole...
....”orchards can’t exist as businesses (without being significantly undersold by foreign markets) without illegal migrants”...
Sorry...I just see it as greed on the part of the growers...I blame them. And it isn’t just ag jobs...there are many US industries that are inundated with illegals. If necessary to remain competitive, growers should take a cut in order to pay American citizens a decent wage. Americans were doing the jobs long before illegal aliens. From what I’ve read, even if the increase in ag wage were passed along to the consumer the increase would be very small.
In the old days, the farms in southern New Jersey or Pennsylvania used blacks from the south, many of whom were recently emancipated from slavery. When the blacks stopped coming, they switched to Puerto Ricans, who were easy to entice and bring over, already being US citizens. When the Ricans stopped coming, they brought in the Mexicans. Now it is increasingly Guatemalans, many of whom don't even speak Spanish.
Automation for the industry is a much more viable solution. It was the ending of the bracero program that caused the tomato growers to invest in technology. Some crops (such as grapes) may always need to be picked by hand, but the deportation of illegal labor will spur greater investment in technology to harvest the fields/orchards.
Unless you lived in a really backward part of the country, with lots of native born Americans with nothing better to do, much of the schlepp work in the more developed part of the country was always handled by immigrants, legal or illegal, to say nothing of American minorities (blacks from the south).
I don’t see how our tax money can be used to build these “centers.” There is a “day laborer center” in Jupiter, FL.
I wonder how many cities have these.
Clemenza’s right- the “Americans” (however one chooses to define that) doing this job before the South American migrants weren’t getting a living wage either. With the current minimum wage, unionized labor, etc., labor costs for these businesses would increase many times over. Also, remember that these are orchards we’re talking about, so full automation, large threshers, etc., aren’t an option- this has to be done by hand and all at once when the fruit is at the proper stage of ripeness. In other words, you need a huge number of people willing to do hard labor for far less than the legal minimum wage over a short period of time and then go on and find employment elsewhere. No region has an “American” work force willing to do that. And also remember we’re mainly talking about things like pears here, not staples like corn, or rice, or tomatoes. How many people do you know who would really continue to buy pears if the prices increased several times over? The American industry would simply die.
I’m not saying that sacrifices shouldn’t be made be made or that “greed” isn’t at play here- I’m just saying that there’s a difference between “I want to keep my business, industry, and town from all going under” and “I want a 300% profit instead of a 250% one”.
Best you guys give up the quasi-slavery business, pay your help, and hire American first.
BTW, Mexican "growers" have other problems (which you may not recognize) that make their product suspect on American markets. The current problem with tomatoes is representative of that problem.
Oh, yeah, and the lettuce thing in CA. You don't really think any of us believed those ladies coring lettuce ever washed their hands do you?
I was arrested 2 weeks ago for disorderly conduct (a valid charge) for peacefully blocking the entrance to Portland’s illegal day labor site. My intent was to be arrested. My defense will be Oregon’s “Lesser of two evils defense.” In other words, although my blocking of the driveway is evil, it is considerably less evil than the multiple/continuous violations of United States law that I was attempting to prevent.
Eight days ago I filed civil lawsuits against our mayor and the three city councilors - as private citizens, not government officials - who approved Portland tax money to fund this site for one year.
http://www.katu.com/news/20752009.html
I have a copy of a certified letter sent to the mayor by Judicial Watch which warns him of the fact he will violate 6 federal laws if the labor site opens and I have the video of the March 5th, city council meeting at which; the funds were approved, conspiracy to violate federal laws was rampant, and in which I personally told the mayor and council they would be violating at least 4 federal laws if the day labor site opens.
http://www.portlandonline.com/index.cfm?c=28259 (43:48 to end)
I will call under oath the mayor and three councilors and have them admit they knowingly violated federal laws. That’s about as far ahead as I’ve planned. Anybody have any suggestions for my next step (bearing in mind I believe there’s a little wink-wink, nod-nod going on between city officials and local/federal(?) prosecutors)?
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