Hundreds line-up for chicken processing jobs

Uhhh that link says nothing about hundreds lining up for those shit jobs.

R1, Disagree with how ICE handled the arrests but at least 200 people immediately applied for the new chicken processing jobs.

So much for all the illegal immigrant defenders claiming Americans won’t do low level jobs.

I wonder how much Donald DUMP paid them to stand in line?

So...hundreds of people stood in line to apply for a job making $10/hr hacking up chickens under shitty conditions with no benefits and that’s GOOD news? Fuck off.

Why'd that particular place employ so many illegals?

R6, I suspect it's because most illegals have a rep for a far better work ethic and never complain.

My uncle has a farm and hires illegals to pick fruit. He has done this since he took over the farm in the 1960s. In his case he cannot hire native workers and the illegals can be worked to death and have no rights. If they complain he can threaten to report them to ICE. They work 12 hour days, they work with unsafe machinery, they work for less then minimum wage, they don’t get proper breaks or overtime. My uncle is a total asshole but that’s the way farmers operate all over the region. In 2015 his son left flyers into the local high schools and community college and 2 young locals applied and were hired. One last one shift, the other last 4 days.

[quote]So...hundreds of people stood in line to apply for a job making $10/hr hacking up chickens under shitty conditions with no benefits and that’s GOOD news?

Yet you were okay with illegals doing it under the same conditions.

We already knew that the lives of "illegals" -- whether in their home countries or in the US -- were shit, and that they were/ are exploited.

That US citizens should be lining up to take these demanding, possibly dangerous and underpaid jobs without benefits shows just how bad things have gotten here too for the 90%.

Clear enough for you, r9?

R8 has it pegged. Two hundred will apply and get the jobs now that they’re open, and most will have quit inside of a week or less complaining that they didn’t realize they actually had to, you know, work.

And 75% of the people hired to replace the undocumented workers will quit within a few weeks once they see what a shit job, shit wages, and even shittier working conditions they'll have to deal with.

"Vacated by undocumented workers."?

Yes, aren't they all in the South of France?

r11 and r12 are correct.

But, but, but I thought Herr Trump had made sure that everyone who wanted a job, had a job? I guess all these folks were just sitting at home waiting for these fabulous chicken gutter positions to open up.

America never got over slavery. Illegals are the new slaves.

In Episode 5 (Season 3) of his podcast, Malcolm Gladwell explains (with scientific evidence) why trying to build a wall only has the opposite effect.

R3, you've got it exactly backwards. It's the always Republican employers that claim they can't find Americam workets. So they have to employ immigrants.

All those employers who hire illegals should be in prison. That'd stop illegal immigration desd.

Deport the illegals now!

“Why oh why can’t I find an American who’ll gut chickens for $8/hour and no benefits! Must be cause they’re lazy”

Off topic but I was always impressed the good pope John XXIII was from a family of sharecroppers, essentially poor agricultural workers. His predecessor Pius XII was from the high Roman aristocracy and successor, Paul VI, from the rural nobility.

My partner works at a factory that is actually pretty nice, as factories go. Plenty of safety equipment, well maintained machinery, climate control, and starting pay of $15/hour with plenty of overtime at time-and-a-half or double time.

He's on year four of constantly training new employees because they show up, work a few weeks or a couple of months, then bail because they absolutely cannot and will not put up with what they call "terrible" working conditions, or live in a small town like ours -- and our town is HUGE compared to Morton, Mississippi.

My partner's been there 14 years and for the first 10, people were clamoring to apply. Now they can't get anyone to stay.

A job that's more difficult, disgusting, and in a much smaller town with less pay won't be able to keep those 200 who applied at the job fair, mark my words. There was a reason undocumented workers had those jobs.

[quote] Why'd that particular place employ so many illegals?

I'll tell you why.

1. The illegals will show up and work hard the entire day, unlike most American workers.

2. The company can treat the illegals like shit because they know the illegals can't do anything about it

There used to be a meatpackers union in this country. The bosses got tired of paying people decently and decided (with the collusion of the Regan/Bush DoJ) to truck in immigrants to do the job at a quarter the price. The bosses got used to the profits and kept doing it. This latest atrocity will destroy the lives of a bunch of people who have worked harder than any DLer has ever thought to. But eventually, it’ll all go back to the way it was because Rs love money more than literally anything.

Didn't this happen in Montana or Minnesota during the Obama administration? Those raids left many jobs open. Fast forward today and those jobs are now occupied by Muslim refugees from Africa because the whites left those jobs within weeks. The same will apply here.

[quote]One of the targets was the Koch Foods Inc. plant in Morton, Mississippi, where several busloads of workers were arrested.

It is clearly against the law to hire a noncitizen/nongreencarder.

That's why you have to bring your passport to your first day of work and they make a copy.

We await the arrest of Mr. Koch.

R22, I work for a call center that is a contractor for an insurance company. We're in a small town in the South. It's really rare to find an office job around here. Most of the jobs are retail, manufacturing and restaurant. Most of our manufacturing is in poorly air conditioned facilities. The type of things that are manufactured require very hot machinery/furnaces, so it's really hard to air condition those places. So a call center is great compared to the other options. We have Monday through Friday schedules, overtime if you want it and best of all, we only talk to other insurance companies, NOT the public. Plus, you don't have to depend on any other employee in order to do your job, so NO drama. You just come in, a list of insurance companies to call is sent to you and you call them. This is a great job and an very easy job

Unfortunately, we go through more help than I use Kleenex in a week. We have about 120 employees. And every Monday we have a training group of at least 4 and up to 6 people. Our staff is always late, want to leave early or constantly call out. And we're actually really cool about people being late and leaving early. We go through so many people that we have to be cool about it and we just ask everyone to make up their time and work their entire 40 hours.

It's so bad that we don't discipline anyone. If they take too long on their breaks we don't say anything. We do have a "quota", but we never yell at anyone for not meeting it. We do send out emails every week telling them if they did a good job or if they were "a little bit low on the quota", but we never talk to anyone about it. The only time we have fired anyone was when we caught someone stealing from the employee lockers

Before this job I was a supervisor in a factory. We went through 500 people from a temp service in 9 months. 18 to 30 yr old people are lazy and useless

Maybe it’s just people from the South are dumb, lazy and useless. Here in NYC, if you don’t work, you get canned.

[quote]at least 200 people immediately applied for the new chicken processing jobs.

[italic]At least.[/italic]

They rounded up and detained more than 680 immigrants, and that's just the estimate coming from those who were there because neither Koch nor ICE is talking about any of the details. Translation: probably more than 1,000 vacant jobs, the plant is effectively closed, and the chickens are starving to death because Charles and David are too cheap to buy chicken feed. Alternatively, chicken ranchers are worried because they've risked the profitability of their operations on delivering chickens to Koch at exactly the right moment, and with the plant shuttered due to Trumpshenanigans, they're about to suffer another losing season and many of the family operations will go belly-up.

But don't worry, Trump is swooping in with a(nother) taxpayer-funded bailout to salve the fragile Koch ego with a few $billion.

MAGA!

They let hundreds of the workers go, R29. I would assume many of them were legally here or at least had the proper paperwork, so they may not have lost their jobs.

That said, I believe some who didn't get taken by ICE were later fired anyway. This PH Food originally said only 70-80 employees were taken, but a few days ago they fired 100 people. They wouldn't tell the press who was fired, but it's assumed they were the people who were carted off, returned and not taken into ICE custody, and PH Food fired them anyway.

The headline has been made and we will never see the follow up story of how many actually applied, were hired and went to work for any significant time. Now move on to next Tweet on some other false claim. It works.

Yes, they did let hundreds go, R30... and that doesn't change the fact that more than 680 were detained, processed, and at this point, likely deported; that the plant is effectively shuttered; that the Kochs, who committed the actual crime of hiring people illegally, have skated completely; and a community is devastated in Trump's despicable plan to divide and conquer the nation.

[quote] So much for all the illegal immigrant defenders claiming Americans won’t do low level jobs.

Two hundred Americans applying for 680 vacant jobs isn't a great rate to begin with and as others have pointed out, there's no way all 200 (or anything close to it) will actually get hired and stick with the job for any significant length of time.

[quote] Here in NYC, if you don’t work, you get canned.

Mary, please. I've lived and worked in NYC for 25 years and can assure you that's bullshit. Every office that I or my friends and acquaintances have worked in had has its share of employees who skate by for years doing as little work as possible and doing it poorly to boot.

It's confusing as hell to see people justify slave labor on this thread by saying that there are people willing to do those jobs. It's exactly because employers can exploit these workers that these jobs have become so devalued. It's nice to know that people here don't care about working conditions not only abroad but in the USA as long as they get their cheap products. You know what would make things cheaper? Not having to compete for so few resources.

I've attached a story from AP News.

My personal experience with illegal immigrants from Mexico goes back to the 60s when our family needed workers in their orchards. In those days it was impossible to get enough workers to do all of the jobs throughout the growing season. Once when the boarder patrol raided many of the local farms, the high school let out students to help out. Many of the workers from the 60s continued to live in the area and are now either foremen in the orchards or have found other lines of work. Their children started to work on the farms to earn extra money but found other employment as they finished school. We're now up to the third and forth generations who have totally integrated with all parts of the community. In the early days it would have been much easier if workers from Mexico would have been given green cards at the boarder without any hassle and be allowed to stay. Why does immigration have to be so difficult?

Imagine a day without Mexicans.

My area too depends on Latin American immigrants to work in the orchards and vineyards. Most of the orchard owners erect tents at the edge of the orchards/vineyards to house the men in the spring, summer and fall months.

The work is hard and the days are long. Because the men are provided 'free housing' in tents, the US Department of Labor permits employers to pay less than the minimum wage. Not many native-born Americans want to work long days outside working with chemicals, pruning vine and trees, and picking fruit at wages under $7/hour.

A friend works at the Trump Winery outside of Charlottesville. The winery was purchased by the Donald but is part of Eric's portfolio now. The vineyard has a crew of 15-20 Latino men who work seasonally. Whenever a TV crew or the press arrive at the Winery, these men are assigned to work inside one of the barns out of view of the press.

Your friend needs to go to the press, R38.

[quote] Deport the illegals now!

No, if they are gainfully employed and paying taxes give them a green card. If they can prove they've been here working over 7 years let them become US citizens. Like it or not, these "illegals" are providing a service to this country. They keep our farms & other industries (like chicken processing plants) going. The farmers will never find enough American workers to get out and work in their fields day after day.

[quote]Not many native-born Americans want to work long days outside working with chemicals, pruning vine and trees, and picking fruit at wages under $7/hour.

The wages wouldn’t be anywhere near $7, so it’s false to state that. The economic law of supply and demand would naturally raise wages, significantly, to the price required for a person to perform the job,

Let’s make sure we preserve the playlists of the factories to avoid future angst...

All employees receive a copy of this handbook.

Where are the Democrat-Party-supporting business-owners?

Who are they hiring?

Do many Democrat-Party-supporters own businesses?

It's astounding to see the the pro union party arguing that it's perfectly acceptable for workers to be paid $7 an hour when the cost of living for all Americans is going up.

oh stop

$15 an hour for the barista at the coffeehouse, but $7 is just fine for the out-of-sight illegals in a meat processing plant, apparently.

The boneless chicken ranch is hiring.

Problematic on all sidso the issue...

R26, R29, R32, The "Koch brothers" are evil and have much to answer for, but they are not the only folks in this country with that name, and they do not own Koch Foods. That would be a Chicago billionaire named Joseph Grendys, who bought out the original owner, a man whose name happened to be Fred Koch, more than 25 years ago.

[quote]My uncle is a total asshole but that’s the way farmers operate all over the region.

You're an asshole for not reporting him. You are complicit and equally guilty of exploitation of these people.

Something people forget is that "illegals" have taxes taken out of their already paltry paycheck, but because they don't have a SSN, they can't file income taxes to get a refund. All of that uncollected money goes right back into the government coffers. Yet another way this country actually gains (however unethically) from the hiring of "illegals". Were all of these workers to magically disappear tomorrow, we would be fucked economically in ways other than just "who's going to pick the grapes and pluck the chickens?"

Just playing devil's advocate, the hundreds of Americans lining up for these jobs may be doing so because Trump's economy has ruined their existing finances, eliminated jobs which they already had and are desperate for work - any work - in order to survive.

R53 Those jobs are already being eliminated without Trump's help.

If you look at countries, hell even regions of this country, with little to no immigration (think Japan or West Virginia or upstate New York), they’re all economically moribund. Immigrants are a blessing and we should be happy so many people want to move here despite how mean and racist and cheap Americans are.

Do illegals work at this kind of chicken plant?

Oh, forgive me for thinking the owner of Koch Foods is the same as Koch Industries. It makes everything I said a lie!

Or not. Why isn't Joseph Grendys in jail for violating employment law?

LOL!

IF this isn't fake news, now... a bunch of white, fat, lazy gimmie-gimmie-where's-mine MAGA types will get the job. Realize the shittiness of it all, ban together, try to unionize, and drive the whole company into the ground or causeit serious harm while trying (long after the Trump & Co. has moved onto another band of suckers).

Seriously: LOL!

This is business naivety 101.

[quote] It's astounding to see the the pro union party arguing that it's perfectly acceptable for workers to be paid $7 an hour when the cost of living for all Americans is going up.

Where has anyone suggested that $7/hour is an acceptable wage?

R45, no, just pointing out that the owner's claim that they have to hire illegal immigrants for pennies on the dollar because they can't find Americans to do the work is obviously bullshit. They just don't want to pay the wages they'd need to retain American workers.

R60 I agree. It would create a ripple on the economy but would help Americans in the long run. They are using a moral argument to justify their hiring of illegals which they go on to exploit. The irony.

Democrats and Republicans are both complicit. Critics will rightly point out Trump's hypocrisy but will hide behind their own.

In fairness, if a chicken cost what it ought to if we paid the workers decently, Americans would riot. They want cheap food, cheap imported products, no immigrants and all the jobs to be here in America.

From the ICE thread....

USA Today:

Mississippi ICE raid: More than 40 charged, no company officials

So the OP/ r2wasn't being sarcastic with the "Hundreds line up for jobs" / "MAGA" horse shit?

I know you Deplorables aren't good with math, but 680 - 200 workers = A NEGATIVE 480 WORKERS!

THE PROCESSING PLANT IS NOW SHORT 480 WORKERS, ASSUMING ALL NEW APPLICANTS WERE HIRED AND DOCUMENTED WHITE TRASH, WHICH MEANS MOST WHITE AMERICANS STILL DON'T WANT THESE GRIMY JOBS!!

R66 Yes, because Americans should have to put up with illegal workplace conditions and shit wages.

And when is Trump, or ANY Republican, going to force their elitist fat cat puppetmasters to "pay the wages they'd need to retain American workers." r60?

Why do Republicans keep believing the Republican Party of corporate predators, who outsourced most U.S. manufacturing jobs to foreigners, always cuts education and is now starting trade wars which throw Americans out of work, is going to save them?

How stupid and self-defeating can the Republican base get? They live and vote to make the rich richer. They're stupid peasants who whore themselves out for a little sadistic, racist fun against minorities.

Is OP / r2 really an American worker? Or just another Republican, corporate predator trying to con ordinary people? Gullible, racist trash? A paid, Russian troll trying to disrupt and dismantle Western power again?

Whoever it is, he doesn't have the best interests of American worker or economy at heart. Or any results to show for his and Trump's showboating.

[quote] THE PROCESSING PLANT IS NOW SHORT 480 WORKERS, ASSUMING ALL NEW APPLICANTS WERE HIRED AND DOCUMENTED WHITE TRASH, WHICH MEANS MOST WHITE AMERICANS STILL DON'T WANT THESE GRIMY JOBS!!

Are you saying those jobs are not good enough for white trash? Tell us what you really think of undocumented people.

White people are saying they're too good for manual labor and they have been for decades.

Trump's base is not going to show up and take those jobs! And I bet a sizeable portion of the 200 new applicants were people of color and UNDOCUMENTED!

My cousin hires illegal to work in his restaurant kitchen. He can't get Americans who show up for work every day. They funny thing is that my cousins and I all worked in a local restaurant from the time we were kids. We mowed the lawn, groomed the pebbles in the parking lot, watered the flowers, shovelled snow, raked leaves and then....we graduated to jobs in the kitchen. When we were old enough, boys wore lederhosen and girls wore dirndls and worked bussing tables, then waiting tables. My cousin who now has a restaurant became bartender, then maitre d. Two of my other cousins became chefs and one opened a deli/sandwich shop.

American kids just aren't as poor as we were. We were from an big Irish Catholic family. Irish Catholics didn't use birth control, so there were too many of us. If we wanted to buy a bike or go to the movies we had to earn the money for it. If we called in sick our mothers gave us hell if we were lying and made us go to work even if we weren't lying. "You have a job, get used to it and get out of this house, kid. Go earn"

Funny thing is, we had fun working in the restaurant. We imitated our bosses, made fun of the nasty customers in the kitchen. We had all the Coca Cola, coffee and tea we could drink. The chef gave us baked clams, consommé with noodles, shrimp, butchers platter. He sautéed fresh fish from the dock for us. At the end of the night there were delicious desserts that had reached their last day, so we all had some. Black Forest cake, German chocolate, cranberry bread pudding, vanilla coconut. All made on the premises.

We thought we were lucky to work there.

My cousin treats his workers the way we were treated.

Most of today's American parents have the attitude that little Johnny and Trisha are far too good to work any sort of minimum wage job. They expect their children to be given jobs commensurate with their social status, not their abilities and intellect. That is if they allow their high school aged children to lower themselves to work at all.

“The bosses got tired of paying people decently and decided (with the collusion of the Regan/Bush DoJ) to truck in immigrants to do the job at a quarter the price.“

Exactly right - illegal immigrants work twice as hard for half the pay. The whole issue of illegal immigration is the elite using regular people’s empathy to disguise the fact that this whole entire thing is a giant money transfer from labor to capital.

Americans are killing themselves with opioids. Maybe these Hispanics etc. should take over.

[quote] And when is Trump, or ANY Republican, going to force their elitist fat cat puppetmasters to "pay the wages they'd need to retain American workers." [R60]?

R68, that would be never. Trump will probably give them a tax break so they can relocate the factory to Mexico.

[quote]In fairness, if a chicken cost what it ought to if we paid the workers decently, Americans would riot.

It would be a shock if prices changed overnight to what they should be. Nevertheless, the prices for goods handled by illegals need to be properly updated to what they should have been already, had illegals not artificially suppressed wages and costs.

R71, how much does your cousin pay? Be honest. I love these employers who say they just can't keep people when they are paying them $8/hour, giving no benefits, won't guarantee weekly hours, and want infinite availability for scheduling.

R27 - in which state is your company located? Is your town a welcoming and diverse one? In other words, might a job-seeking retiree be content there?

Hi R76. It isn’t “illegals” who are suppressing wages. It’s the bosses who are hiring them. Never forget who profits off of undocumented workers. It’s not the workers. It’s the white, Republican bosses.

R79 Not necessarily true. The democrats have looked the other way and promote the false narrative that Americans are too lazy to work even though they condemn the same working conditions when they occur outside of American soil. Both parties have benefited and both parties have been complicit. It's become taboo to even talk about the issue of illegal immigration without being smeared by both sides.

[quote] Something people forget is that "illegals" have taxes taken out of their already paltry paycheck, but because they don't have a SSN, they can't file income taxes to get a refund. All of that uncollected money goes right back into the government coffers. Yet another way this country actually gains (however unethically) from the hiring of "illegals".

Don't be stupid. I agree with almost everything on this thread. It is terrible, but don't use that phenomenally stupid excuse. They barely make anything. The taxes they pay are a pittance. Each child they go on to have (and they all go on to have many children) have costs the taxpayers a minimum of $15,000. That kid will go on to get free health care (Medicaid), where every single thing is covered and there are absolutely no copays. That would cost an American citizen about $750 a month

So when you are arguing for illegals, don't use that ridiculous excuse, "but many of them pay taxes and don't even get a refund". I'm sure most taxpayers would be happy to give them a refund if the illegals would take some financial responsibility and pay for their own children. Americans have to

[quote]So much for all the illegal immigrant defenders claiming Americans won’t do low-level jobs.

Nobody’s said “low-level jobs.” It’s jobs that nobody wants to do. Come back to us, when you see a truck full of proud boys mowing lawns or cleaning hotel rooms. The article is about a small town in Mississippi. What else is there to do there but process chicken parts?

If you’re going to be a nasty prick at least be realistic.

Their children are American citizens, R81, at least in many cases.

[quote]It’s jobs that nobody wants to do.

Give me the company’s checkbook and I’ll guarantee you that I’ll find the right wage to attract and keep American workers and I’ll use that wage to fill those jobs with Americans.

I have a friend who owns a roofing company, and he is unable to hire Americans for $10 an hour who will do work as fantastic as the illegal immigrants who work for him. These people do good work and they work really, really hard.

If he raises his wages he will not be competitive with all of the other roofers in the Atlanta Metro area who also all hire illegal immigrants, and he will go out of business. What he’s doing now is he’s working with a lawyer to get his three best workers into legal status - it’s all he can really do as a business owner and still feed his family.

Like I keep saying if you really want to stop illegal immigration you need to arrest the people hiring them.

[quote]If he raises his wages he will not be competitive with all of the other roofers in the Atlanta Metro area who also all hire illegal immigrants, and he will go out of business.

Wouldn’t the law-abiding answer to the problem be to report the other roofers to ICE? It’s not an acceptable excuse to do something illegal because others do it too.

[quote]Like I keep saying if you really want to stop illegal immigration you need to arrest the people hiring them.

Unfortunately r86, our esteemed attorney general has made it quite clear that Trump cannot be arrested.

All these folks taking about how great it was back in the good old days forget that you could still hold a regular job and meet basic needs. Now, you can barely make rent.

Employers are subsidizing their profits on the backs of low wage workers, legal or illegal—and it goes up the chain. I had a friend who worked here in the US on an H1B visa in the tech field. I noticed that most of his co-workers were guest workers from different countries and asked why. He said that his company advertises the positions here in the. US at terrible starting salaries and benefits, and when no competent US candidates apply, they turn around and claim to the government they can’t find citizens to fill the positions and need work visas to hire foreigners. The people from other countries they end up hiring accept these low wages and complain little, since at any time their visa can be revoked by the company if they become q “problem”. This is the same thing done at the lower end of the employment spectrum, except that they simply hire illegal immigrants, rationalizing that Americans won’t apply—or are too lazy to work.

And this was 1998. And it’s even worse now.

R87 I’ve considered doing exactly that – reporting everyone. However when I got to the ICE webpage where you report criminal activity, I hit a wall: what am I supposed to write in the comments section? “All the roofers in Atlanta are employing illegal immigrants”? Doesn’t ICE already know that?

Also as we’ve seen when ICE does make a move they arrest all the employees but none of the employers, so my reporting if successful would just get a bunch of working guys arrested and deported.

R87 I’ve considered doing exactly that – reporting everyone. However when I got to the ICE webpage where you report criminal activity, I hit a wall: what am I supposed to write in the comments section? “All the roofers in Atlanta are employing illegal immigrants”? Doesn’t ICE already know that?

Also as we’ve seen when ICE does make a move they arrest all the employees but none of the employers, so my reporting if successful would just get a bunch of working guys arrested and deported.

America needs slave labor. Damn that Lincoln!

Got a lot of feelings about this. The first thing I'll say is that immigration is a powerful economic tool if used properly. It can't be just an open spigot. That spigot has to be turned up, down or even off at times in order for the economy to work properly. We don't do that effectively now. Now it's so politically and morally charged that we may never reach a place where we can use that tool effectively.

As for work places and immigration, my friend wanted nothing more than to cook in the kitchen of a well known chain grocery. Good benefits, decent wage, right location for her. She had to transfer out of her location to another 30 minutes away because location 1 was controlled by what she called the Guatemalan mafia. That kitchen had 90% Guatemalans in there and they were going to keep it that way, they hassled her into a transfer where she found a kitchen that was almost all Ethiopians. They were nicer and hated working nights and weekends so she found a niche there, as long as she took the tough shift. She was a white american.

Second story. My neighbor wanted to work the factory floor of a major health and beauty company. No go, she was not latina and wouldn't fit in the culture. She's black in a southern city.

My old friend inherited a large farm (4/5 generations.) run by a corporate entity but he was sweating out the yearly board meetings because of corn prices and soy prices and what might happen to illegal aliens who worked the harvest. I suggested maybe a business predicated on violating federal law might not be a good business model in the 21st century. I dearly hope he sold out when his mother died.

3 of my 4 grandparents were immigrants. One may have been illegal her entire time here. We're talking Irish and Canadians here.

As I said it's a powerful economic tool if used correctly. But there's that human and humane element.

Right now I want across the board amnesty and then as close to a shut down for a two years as possible. Sort it the fuck out.

The problem is there is no real investment in solving the immigration problems. Most people want a good immigration system. However, they only do high profile raids that target illegal Hispanics to gin up the racist Trump base and give him something to point to when he says he’s tough on immigration. Until there is widespread prosecution of people hiring illegal immigrants, there will always be a supply of desperate people to meet the demand.

We're Eric and Donnie Jr. standing in line?

this is interesting. The script that only illegals will take these kinds of jobs is probably false. but the fact that we have this shitty culture in which people will work for shit wages at shit jobs is probably a bigger problem. Maybe Andrew Yang is right, give everyone 1000 dollars a month so they don't actually have to work shit jobs and have a bit of choice might be a better option.

[quote] Right now I want across the board amnesty and then as close to a shut down for a two years as possible. Sort it the fuck out.

This was already attempted in the 80s but it wasn't sorted out. I don't believe it ever will be.

Hey, R88.

[quote]they all go on to have many children

Interesting that r81 isn't even embarrassed enough these days to hide it

[quote]Give me the company’s checkbook and I’ll guarantee you that I’ll find the right wage to attract and keep American workers and I’ll use that wage to fill those jobs with Americans.

I mean...really? OF COURSE, you’d attract American workers with the right wages. That’s the whole FUCKING point. The people that accept these jobs aren’t really in the position to haggle for the “right wage” and employers KNOW that. Seriously?

I also I think that you’re overestimating the American work ethic. Again, show me a roof full of white dudes in 110-degree weather building houses or a restaurant kitchen full of white dudes or a hotel cleaning staff, etc. I’m NOT declaring that non-immigrants would NEVER take these jobs. I’m not delusional. But why are you pretending like this is some kind of Liberal cover-up of the truth?

[quote]Again, show me a roof full of white dudes in 110-degree weather building houses or a restaurant kitchen full of white dudes or a hotel cleaning staff, etc.

People, including Americans, will do worse than that and stay at it for the right amount of money. The wage can’t be set at the correct amount if illegals undercut it.

R81 is so completely full of shit, I don't even know where to begin. Do you really think that all poor kids (especially kids whose parents are undocumented) are on Medicare? Do you know the hoops you have to jump through to actually GET on Medicare? Do you think that undocumented people with poor English skills would risk getting arrested to deal with Medicare? Do you really think Medicare is free once you're on it? It's not. You pay and pay and pay and pay for EVERYTHING. Jesus these people.

[quote] The wage can’t be set at the correct amount if illegals undercut it.

Illegals aren't undercutting wages, employers are. Punish employers for hiring illegals and you'll stop illegal immigration dead.

Didn't Trump and his cronies have complete control of the federal government for 2 years? Couldn't they have written whatever immigrant-bashing nightmare law they wanted? And yet they didn't. Why? Clearly because major corporate interests love having a supply of cheap, easily exploited labor. And the real trick is that they get the drooling rubes at Fox News to vote for them by stoking fear and resentment of immigrants!

Americans demand cheap industrial garbage meat to shove into their glutinous pie holes, so of course the jobs in such capitalist food industries are garbage, too. MAGA

R105, of course they did, and we all know the ONLY thing they passed was a massive tax cut for the wealthy. It wasn't until Democrats took back the house that we suddenly had an "illegal immigration crisis".

[quote] The wage can’t be set at the correct amount if illegals undercut it.

Love the jackasses in this thread who think everyone but the employers is to blame for substandard wages and work conditions. "It's the Democrats' fault for not babysitting company owners and making sure they play fair!" "It's immigrants' fault for accepting shitty wages and terrible conditions!" Never are employers to be held responsible for being greedy fucks who will treat and pay their employees like slaves if they can get away with doing so.

Who here isn't blaming employers? Most people seem to agree with R104.