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U.S. workers and taxpayers pay heavy price for illegal immigration (Phyllis Schlafly)
Town Hall ^ | 4/24/2006 | Phyllis Schlafly

Posted on 04/24/2006 4:24:45 PM PDT by HEMICRASHBOX

Illegal immigrants in this country are threatening a massive boycott on May 1, purportedly to demonstrate they are so essential that the U.S. economy would shut down without their labor. On the contrary, such a boycott will expose the lie expressed by President George W. Bush in Cancun, Mexico, that they are "doing work that Americans will not do."

According to the Pew Hispanic Center, illegal immigrants make up less than 5 percent of the U.S. labor force. If every one of the 20 million illegal aliens in our country plays hooky from his job on May 1, the overwhelming majority of those same types of jobs will be worked by millions of U.S. citizens.

All over America, U.S. citizens will flip hamburgers in fast-food shops, wash dishes in restaurants, change sheets in hotels, mow lawns, trim shrubs, pick produce, drive taxis, replace roofs on houses, and do all kinds of construction work. Americans are quite willing to work unpleasant, menial, tiresome and risky jobs, but not for Third World wages.

An employment service in Mobile, Ala., recently received an "urgent request" to fill 270 job openings from contractors who were hired to rebuild and clear areas of Alabama devastated by Hurricane Katrina. The agency immediately sent 70 laborers and construction workers to three job sites.

After two weeks on the job, the men were fired by employers who told them "the Mexicans had arrived" and were willing to work for lower wages. The U.S. citizens had been promised $10 an hour, but the employers preferred Mexicans who would work for less. Employment agency manager Linda Swope told The Washington Times: "When they told the guys they would not be needed, they actually cried ... and we cried with them. This is a shame."

Swope said that employment agencies throughout Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi all face similar problems because an estimated 30,000 men from Mexico and Central and South America, many in crowded buses and trucks, came into those three states after Hurricane Katrina, willing to work for less than whatever was paid to U.S. citizens.

Meanwhile, President Bush signed the Katrina Emergency Assistance Act extending for 13 weeks the unemployment benefits to U.S. citizens displaced by Katrina. Thus employers get the benefit of cheap foreign labor while you and I provide taxpayer handouts to workers whom the government allowed to be displaced from the jobs they were eager to take.

There is no penalty on employers who replace U.S. citizens with illegal immigrants at lower pay. Homeland Security even announced it has suspended the sanctioning of employers who hire illegal immigrants, and President Bush suspended the Davis-Bacon Act, which requires local contractors to pay "prevailing" wages.

A study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research reported that the surge of immigration in the 1980s and 1990s lowered the wages of our own high school dropouts by 8.2 percent. The surge has accelerated since that report was issued. The Congressional Budget Office reported that 60 percent of Mexican and Central American workers in the United States in 2004 lacked a high school diploma.

The Kennedy-McCain-Bush guest worker plan would import more uneducated, unskilled workers, and thereby deny our own high school dropouts (of whom we have too many) the opportunity to get started in building their lives in the labor force. U.S. citizens are threatened that the cost of lettuce will rise precipitously if we don't continue to import Mexican agricultural workers. But a farm worker gets only 6 or 7 cents out of a $1 head of lettuce, so even if the pay doubles, consumers would hardly notice the difference.

On the other hand, the costs taxpayers are forced to pay for social benefits for low-paid workers are astronomical. The National Research Council reports that an immigrant to the United States without a high-school diploma consumes $89,000 more in government services than he pays in taxes during his lifetime.

Low-paid illegal immigrants obviously pay very little taxes, but they cash in on all sorts of benefits paid by other taxpayers, such as schooling for their children, emergency health care, housing subsidies, Earned Income Tax Credit and law enforcement. If the 20 million illegal immigrants are legalized, they will also become eligible for Medicaid, and that's a real break-the-bank prospect.

These figures don't even count the rapidly growing underground economy, in which millions of illegal immigrants are paid off the books in cash. That enables both employer and employee to avoid paying taxes, and enables employers to avoid paying workers' compensation, unemployment compensation, and assorted other taxes.

If the Internal Revenue Service collected all the taxes that should be paid by the underground economy, our current budget deficit would disappear overnight, according to a Bear Stearns study released in 2005. The Americans who pay taxes are giving a free ride to those who are not paying taxes, and a 7-cent increase in the price of lettuce should not be on our worry list.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: aliens; borderlist; dividedtheyfall; dusrupter; illegalaliens; illegalimmigration; illegals; immigrantlist; immigration; mexicanhater; newby; onetrickpony; racists; schlafly
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To: wastoute; LasVegasMac

<< As I posted before, " ... a job an American won't do is a job that doesn't need doing ... " >>

Absolutely!


41 posted on 04/24/2006 10:39:30 PM PDT by Brian Allen (How arrogant are we to believe our career political-power-lusting lumpen somehow superior to theirs?)
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To: HEMICRASHBOX

just kidding..


42 posted on 04/24/2006 10:51:12 PM PDT by timestax
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To: Ben Ficklin

I think the GOP wants lots of illegals here because they dilute the power of the unions (although they can't say that out loud), and the Democrats want lots of illegals here because they see lots of new welfare-recipients/government-addicts/Democrat-voters down the line (and the Democrats can't say that out loud, either).

What a conundrum!


43 posted on 04/24/2006 11:10:05 PM PDT by Lancey Howard
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To: DaisyGirl

Hi DG,

I was there and the opposition did have to be separated from the good guys. The cops acted quickly. Believe me they would have came out the losers if they had pushed the issue.

The good guys outnumbered the losers by a wide margin. The bad guys were self labled communists and America haters plus a few self proclaimed illegals with signs saying the border crossed them. All blowing whistles, banging drums and calling everyone on our side racists. The usual BS. We gave more than we got and it was a lot of fun.

What was new and encouraging was one black speaker after another demanding the law be followed, insisting this is America and that we should be speaking English and that we should not encourge spanish in any way. They protested how thier kids could not work as local business demanded workers speak Spanish.

The Crispus Attucks Brigade (black minutemen) were well recieved and passed out US flags. There were white Minutemen there as well.

Besides Ted Hayes,an LA. based homeless activist and full on conservative and the guy who organized the event, Terry Anderson a local black anti illlegal immigration radio personality spoke, Terry's motto is "If you aint mad, you aint paying attention.

I was treated warmly as one of the (too few) whites in attendance.

I have never seen such outspoken patriotism from blacks in my life and they are our natural allies in this fight. And they are well aware that this is a defining moment in our nations history and that there is a lot on the line. I was very encouraged.

I spoke with a black woman who agreed blacks and white Americans demonstrating togather helped avoid labels of racism when it is really nationalism and patriotism.

Next rally will be on May 9th, same location.


44 posted on 04/25/2006 12:34:04 AM PDT by ARE SOLE
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To: HEMICRASHBOX

[[Employment agency manager Linda Swope told The Washington Times: "When they told the guys they would not be needed, they actually cried ... and we cried with them. This is a shame."]]

Now what would have happened if these US workers would have stuck together and said we are NOT letting these Mexicans take our jobs (at least not without a fight or national media spotlight)? This precedent needs to be set somewhere and I believe that it would send a message that we are tired be being played for fools. The party is over. I can't think of any other country in the world where it's citizens would sit idly by while foreigners came in illegally and took over a hugh segment of their job market for lower wages. Political correctness, diversity and multiculturalism will destroy this country from the inside.


45 posted on 04/25/2006 4:39:32 AM PDT by Buffettfan (VIVA LA MIGRA! - LONG LIVE THE MINUTEMEN!)
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To: puppypusher

I don't think anyone really knows how many illegals are in the U.S., or how many are coming in each day. The Federal government seems to have no way of knowing, so I doubt any state or other organization knows either. It could be much higher or much lower than what we hear in the media.


46 posted on 04/25/2006 5:36:37 AM PDT by pleikumud
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To: Buffettfan
Now what would have happened if these US workers would have stuck together and said we are NOT letting these Mexicans take our jobs (at least not without a fight or national media spotlight)?

We would have seen hell freeze over. We're not only losing our country, we've lost our spines.

47 posted on 04/25/2006 5:53:14 AM PDT by StarFan
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To: pleikumud
Perhaps mnot, but it is certainly a great deal more that the 10-12 million "official" number quoted by the MSM and the government as shown by Bear Stearns study.

This study was published in Jan. 2005 and obviously drew from data obtained during 2004. The number derived by methods in this study - 21 million - would almost certainly be above 25 million by now I'd think.

48 posted on 04/25/2006 7:40:36 AM PDT by pigdog
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To: HEMICRASHBOX

Well, if its just screwing taxpayers and workers, it must be ok.


49 posted on 04/25/2006 7:44:11 AM PDT by Wolfie
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To: HEMICRASHBOX
"doing work that Americans will not do."

Like George Bush and our Congress who won't defend and protect America from foreign invasion? I'll bet when the Mexicans take over they won't be the push overs our present politicians are.

50 posted on 04/25/2006 8:19:03 AM PDT by swampfox98 (Lou Dobbs and CNN forever! Michael Savage; Frosty Wooldridge forever!)
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To: HEMICRASHBOX
"doing work that Americans will not do."

Like George Bush and our Congress who won't defend and protect America from foreign invasion? I'll bet when the Mexicans take over they won't be the push overs our present politicians are.

51 posted on 04/25/2006 8:19:56 AM PDT by swampfox98 (Lou Dobbs and CNN forever! Michael Savage; Frosty Wooldridge forever!)
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To: Ben Ficklin
"What do you call living in this country illegally?"

"I call that de-facto legal status."

"De-facto legal status"???!!!

Ben, that's something that could have been spewed right out of the mouths of Gore, Kennedy, Sharpton, Kerry, or either one of the Clintons.

On the subject of illegal immigration, you sound like a "de-facto" Democrat.

LOL!

52 posted on 04/25/2006 8:31:48 AM PDT by 4Freedom (America is no longer the 'Land of Opportunity'. It's the 'Land of Illegal Alien Opportunists'!!!)
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To: Lancey Howard

bttt


53 posted on 04/25/2006 8:55:48 AM PDT by timestax
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To: HEMICRASHBOX
Mr. President, respecfully... why don't you try to see the problem from the perspective of many Americans?... You might get it sir.


54 posted on 04/25/2006 8:59:14 AM PDT by ElPatriota (Let's not forget, we are all still friends despite our differences)
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To: 4Freedom

It's actually still de facto ILLEGAL status since they are still here illegally.

Someone should post the Mexican government's position and policies on immigration into Mexico.


55 posted on 04/25/2006 9:06:25 AM PDT by pigdog
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To: pigdog

bttt


56 posted on 04/25/2006 9:08:55 AM PDT by timestax
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To: Ben Ficklin

So if I rob a bank, or commit any other crime and manage to elude LE at the time, then I would be in de-facto legal status and they should not be able to apprehend me later?


57 posted on 04/25/2006 9:22:20 AM PDT by Tammy8 (Build a Real Border Fence, and enforce Immigration Laws!!!)
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To: timestax
It might be informative to see how the shoe fits the other guy's foot by checking this information about Mexico's immigration policies.
58 posted on 04/25/2006 9:31:45 AM PDT by pigdog
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To: WestSylvanian
Anyone who says large numbers cannot be deported is actually providing proof that we need a wall and enforcement of immigration laws. They are admitting the problem is beyond their control and they can't fix it. I have yet to hear the President or anyone else supporting a guest worker program or amnesty explain how they will deal with those who overstay their welcome if the new plan is implemented. They say the workers will have to go home after a period of time, but if we can't send those here now illegally home, how would we deal with the same problem later? I have also heard no plan to deal with the illegals who choose not to come forward and be documented under a guest worker plan. Many have already said they want nothing less than blanket citizenship and will not come forward and be documented for a worker program. Illegals feel that would only make it easier to deport them, and many know they would not pass a background check due to a criminal record or other issues.

As far as I am concerned this border needs to be secured immediately and immigration laws need to be enforced. First of all getting control would allow us to know if we even need guest workers, then we could discuss a way to manage that. The truth is if we really secured the border, and enforced the laws, many illegals would deport themselves.
59 posted on 04/25/2006 9:34:28 AM PDT by Tammy8 (Build a Real Border Fence, and enforce Immigration Laws!!!)
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To: Tammy8
... and here's some more information on why Sauce for the Goose is Sauce for the Gander.
60 posted on 04/25/2006 9:42:24 AM PDT by pigdog
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