[Henrietta]

You assume that if we sent all the lettuce pickers home, the jobs would stay here. This is a false assumption. The lettuce picking jobs would move to Mexico (assuming the workers are from Mexico) because, as all you pro-immigration folks keep repeating, illegal immigrants "do the work that American citizens won't do"), and if there are no workers, the jobs can't stay here. Then we will have put our farmlands to higher and better use and will have gotten illegals back to their own country, where they can't continue to exploit our social service systems.

[rbessenger]

I'm jumping in late to this conversation but it should be said that if US cities are feeling the sting of unbridled immigration- imagine what is happening in small towns. Tiny, po-dunk backwater towns are faced with the necessity of police, fire, emt and medical professionals who have to speak spanish.

I traveled through Hardeeville, SC in the past few weeks and the only grocery store in town is all spanish and the church on main street has one english speaking service a week compared to three spanish speaking services. If the big cities are having to make changes imagine what happens when English is no longer the official language in Mayberry RFD.

[Texas_Dawg]

You assume that if we sent all the lettuce pickers home, the jobs would stay here. This is a false assumption. The lettuce picking jobs would move to Mexico (assuming the workers are from Mexico) because, as all you pro-immigration folks keep repeating, illegal immigrants "do the work that American citizens won't do"), and if there are no workers, the jobs can't stay here. Then we will have put our farmlands to higher and better use and will have gotten illegals back to their own country, where they can't continue to exploit our social service systems.

How do you move a farm to Mexico? Those farms would still be picked, it would just cost a lot more. Everyone would pay a lot more for their food. You think a few billion dollars wasted on illegals on welfare is bad? (This is not an argument against illegal immigration but one against welfare, fwiw. I'm opposed to that entirely, not just for illegals.) Just try your proposal and see how many billions would be wasted raising labor rates that high. And that's to say nothing for restaurants, construction and other industries that would be damaged by this, raising prices that much higher for all of us. Instead of just wasting billions of dollars and sending a severe blow to our economy, why don't we just let the people stay and do their jobs as documented workers? If not, and you insist on spending billions to round them all up and send them home, can we then bring in 10 million more legal immigrants wanting to work to replace all the employees you just fired?