If I'm laid off from a $25/hr factory job, then I'm collecting $16/hr in unemployment. You're suggesting giving that up for a job that requires 12-hour days of back-breaking labor standing in a sweltering field, and pays me only a third of what I collect on unemployment, when I have a family to feed, all in the name of patriotism. Not gonna happen.
Like it or not, illegal immigrants fill an economic void, doing necessary jobs that no American is willing to do. And if I'm a blackberry grower that has to choose between hiring undocumented workers and going out of business (because no one's going to buy my produce if I'm charging twice what my neighbor does), the economic realities are hard to argue with.
These are factors that any solution to illegal immigration has to account for. Telling Georgian berry producers to "suck it up", or college grads to go work in the fields for minimum wage, in the name of patriotism, isn't going to accomplish anything. No one's going to fold up shop just on patriotic principle. You need to give him a realistic economic alternative.
Who said anything about doing it for patriotism? I have been in a position in my life that I went from makin pretty good money + benefits, to supporting my family by some of that “back-breaking” sweaty labor. Claiming unemployment when ther IS work is immoral. Foot, I wouldn’t even objec to some form of short-term assistance fir folks who temporarily are “underemployed” (hasn’t there been some sort of tax credit in days past for that classification?)
Oh- and even picking berries pays more than 1/3 of your unemployment benefits. In fact, farmers I know pay around $10 per hour to start, and often provide either housin or at least utilities paid.