Illegal Immigrants Demand Citizenship
- Thread starter Lamberto Quintero
- Start date
C
i never said ALL ILLEGALS DO THIS....what im saying is that the ones who are doing it are fuccin it up for the rest.....and there is enough of them like this that reform is needed......there is an abundance of crime in the US directly linked to illegal immigration......
if they took measures to let them come and work legally while housing them and securing them and screening them before allowing them to live amongts us, im all for them coming and making money.....i aint no hater get ya money....but if its gonna affect my life and the money i have to spend then im not just gonna sit here and sympathize with these people because they are poor....im poor too......im in the same struggle i was born in the same fucced up world....only difference is they was born in mexico and i was born in california....
if they took measures to let them come and work legally while housing them and securing them and screening them before allowing them to live amongts us, im all for them coming and making money.....i aint no hater get ya money....but if its gonna affect my life and the money i have to spend then im not just gonna sit here and sympathize with these people because they are poor....im poor too......im in the same struggle i was born in the same fucced up world....only difference is they was born in mexico and i was born in california....
ill give you that. i had no real proof when i said that, i heard it on CNN and considering its left lean i didnt even attempt to go verify it. but im glad you asked and id love to see your proof that at least half pay all applicable taxes (SS, MC, state and fed witholding) that a US citizen would have to pay when we dont even know exactly how many illegal aliens there are in the country...
but i tried to look into it more for you and find the basis of why a left leaning pro-immigration news channel would say such a thing. the only thing i can think of is that the recent estimates put the number of illegals at 10-12 million. Bear Stearns on the other hand says 20+ mil, so even if 100% of 12 million paid all applicable taxes, thats only 60% of Bear Stearns estimate.
heres another article i found that is more direct "proof":
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/04/AR2006060400965.html
this says only about 55% nationwide illegal immigrants work for employers who withold medicare, ss, and income taxes. It also says 40-50% are paid under the table (ie they dont account for SS, MC, or other payroll taxes, or state withholding, or federal withholding).
your move, and since this single point is the only one you mentioned, should i assume you dont want to dispute the rest of what i said? cause if i can be swayed, thats cool with me. personally i dont have a problem with illegal immigrants, they are doing the same thing i would do if i was in there shoes, and ultimately, its the federal government and the border states who are failing the US by allowing droves to invade and burden our local and national economies. eventually i think there will be a north american union anyway, but lets talk facts first . . .
but i tried to look into it more for you and find the basis of why a left leaning pro-immigration news channel would say such a thing. the only thing i can think of is that the recent estimates put the number of illegals at 10-12 million. Bear Stearns on the other hand says 20+ mil, so even if 100% of 12 million paid all applicable taxes, thats only 60% of Bear Stearns estimate.
heres another article i found that is more direct "proof":
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/04/AR2006060400965.html
this says only about 55% nationwide illegal immigrants work for employers who withold medicare, ss, and income taxes. It also says 40-50% are paid under the table (ie they dont account for SS, MC, or other payroll taxes, or state withholding, or federal withholding).
your move, and since this single point is the only one you mentioned, should i assume you dont want to dispute the rest of what i said? cause if i can be swayed, thats cool with me. personally i dont have a problem with illegal immigrants, they are doing the same thing i would do if i was in there shoes, and ultimately, its the federal government and the border states who are failing the US by allowing droves to invade and burden our local and national economies. eventually i think there will be a north american union anyway, but lets talk facts first . . .
Kern Medical Center located in Bakersfield CA is running in the red every year.
There is ONE problem that causes this. The board has reported that if there was no illegal mothers giving birth in the hospital, there would be enough funds to cover every non insured legal man, woman and child with medical services. ( that is not counting the illegal citizens who go in for other medical services) The KMC board had to close down a medical office in the opposite side of town because of the funding issues.
There is the fiscal report, you decide what you want.
There is ONE problem that causes this. The board has reported that if there was no illegal mothers giving birth in the hospital, there would be enough funds to cover every non insured legal man, woman and child with medical services. ( that is not counting the illegal citizens who go in for other medical services) The KMC board had to close down a medical office in the opposite side of town because of the funding issues.
There is the fiscal report, you decide what you want.
hospitals have been closing in a lot of cities because of the additional burden from illegal immigrants. but people are in some weird schizo denial man. they accept things like religion on faith, the promise of a brighter tomorrow on hope, but stand in firm denial of facts and observed phenomenon.
Illegal aliens threaten
U.S. medical system
Docs journal reports hospitals being closed, previously vanquished diseases being spread
© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com
Cristobal Silverio emigrated illegally from Mexico to Stockton, Calif., in 1997 to work as a fruit picker.
He brought with him his wife, Felipa, and three children, 19, 12 and 8 – all illegals. When Felipa gave birth to her fourth child, daughter Flor, the family had what is referred to as an "anchor baby" – an American citizen by birth who provided the entire Silverio clan a ticket to remain in the U.S. permanently.
But Flor was born premature, spent three months in the neonatal incubator and cost the San Joaquin Hospital more than $300,000. Meanwhile, oldest daughter Lourdes married an illegal alien gave birth to a daughter, too. Her name is Esmeralda. And Felipa had yet another child, Cristian.
The two Silverio anchor babies generate $1,000 per month in public welfare funding for the family. Flor gets $600 a month for asthma. Healthy Cristian gets $400. While the Silverios earned $18,000 last year picking fruit, they picked up another $12,000 for their two "anchor babies."
While President Bush says the U.S. needs more "cheap labor" from south of the border to do jobs Americans aren't willing to do, the case of the Silverios shows there are indeed uncalculated costs involved in the importation of such labor – public support and uninsured medical costs.
In fact, the increasing number of illegal aliens coming into the United States is forcing the closure of hospitals, spreading previously vanquished diseases and threatening to destroy America's prized health-care system, says a report in the spring issue of the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons.
"The influx of illegal aliens has serious hidden medical consequences," writes Madeleine Pelner Cosman, author of the report. "We judge reality primarily by what we see. But what we do not see can be more dangerous, more expensive, and more deadly than what is seen."
According to her study, 84 California hospitals are closing their doors as a direct result of the rising number of illegal aliens and their non-reimbursed tax on the system.
"Anchor babies," the author writes, "born to illegal aliens instantly qualify as citizens for welfare benefits and have caused enormous rises in Medicaid costs and stipends under Supplemental Security Income and Disability Income."
In addition, the report says, "many illegal aliens harbor fatal diseases that American medicine fought and vanquished long ago, such as drug-resistant tuberculosis, malaria, leprosy, plague, polio, dengue, and Chagas disease."
While politicians often mention there are 43 million without health insurance in this country, the report estimates that at least 25 percent of those are illegal immigrants. The figure could be as high as 50 percent.
Not being insured does not mean they don't get medical care.
Under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act of 1985, hospitals are obligated to treat the uninsured without reimbursement.
"Government imposes viciously stiff fines and penalties on any physician and any hospital refusing to treat any patient that a zealous prosecutor deems an emergency patient, even though the hospital or physician screened and declared the patient's illness or injury non-emergency," says the report. "But government pays neither hospital nor physician for treatments. In addition to the fiscal attack on medical facilities and personnel, EMTALA is a handy truncheon with which to pummel politically unpopular physicians by falsely accusing them of violating EMTALA."
According to the report, between 1993 and 2003, 60 California hospitals closed because half their services became unpaid. Another 24 California hospitals verge on closure, the author writes.
"American hospitals welcome 'anchor babies,'" says the report. "Illegal alien women come to the hospital in labor and drop their little anchors, each of whom pulls its illegal alien mother, father, and siblings into permanent residency simply by being born within our borders. Anchor babies are citizens, and instantly qualify for public welfare aid: Between 300,000 and 350,000 anchor babies annually become citizens because of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and the State wherein they reside."
Among the organizations directing illegal aliens into America's medical systems, according to the report, are the Ford Foundation-funded Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, the National Immigration Law Center, the American Immigration Lawyers Association, the American Bar Association's Commission on Immigration Policy, Practice, and Pro Bono, the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, the National Council of La Raza, George Soros's Open Society Institute, the Migration Policy Institute, the National Network for Immigration and Refugee Rights and the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Because drug addiction and alcoholism are classified as diseases and disabilities, the fiscal toll on the health-care system rises.
When Linda Torres was arrested in Bakersfield, Calif., with about $8,500 in small bills in a sack, the police originally thought it was stolen money, explained the report. It was her Social Security lump sum for her disability -- heroin addiction.
"Today, legal immigrants must demonstrate that they are free of communicable diseases and drug addiction to qualify for lawful permanent residency green cards," writes Cosman, a medical lawyer, who formerly taught medical students at the City University of New York. "Illegal aliens simply cross our borders medically unexamined, hiding in their bodies any number of communicable diseases."
Many illegals entering this country have tuberculosis, according to the report.
"That disease had largely disappeared from America, thanks to excellent hygiene and powerful modern drugs such as isoniazid and rifampin," says the report. "TB's swift, deadly return now is lethal for about 60 percent of those infected because of new Multi-Drug Resistant Tuberculosis. Until recently MDR-TB was endemic to Mexico. This Mycobacterium tuberculosis is resistant to at least two major anti-tubercular drugs. Ordinary TB usually is cured in six months with four drugs that cost about $2,000. MDR-TB takes 24 months with many expensive drugs that cost around $250,000 with toxic side effects. Each illegal with MDR-TB coughs and infects 10 to 30 people, who will not show symptoms immediately. Latent disease explodes later.
TB was virtually absent in Virginia until in 2002, when it spiked a 17 percent increase, but Prince William County, just south of Washington, D.C., had a much larger rise of 188 percent. Public health officials blamed immigrants. In 2001 the Indiana School of Medicine studied an outbreak of MDR-TB, and traced it to Mexican illegal aliens. The Queens, New York, health department attributed 81 percent of new TB cases in 2001 to immigrants. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ascribed 42 percent of all new TB cases to 'foreign born' people who have up to eight times higher incidences apparently, 66 percent of all TB cases coming to America originate in Mexico, the Philippines and Vietnam."
Other health threats from illegals include, according to the report:
Chagas disease, also called American trypanosomiasis or "kissing bug disease," is transmitted by the reduviid bug, which prefers to bite the lips and face. The protozoan parasite that it carries, Trypanosoma cruzi, infects 18 million people annually in Latin America and causes 50,000 deaths. The disease also infiltrates America's blood supply. Chagas affects blood transfusions and transplanted organs. No cure exists. Hundreds of blood recipients may be silently infected.
Leprosy, also known as Hansen's disease, was so rare in America that in 40 years only 900 people were afflicted. Suddenly, in the past three years America has more than 7,000 cases of leprosy. Leprosy now is endemic to northeastern states because illegal aliens and other immigrants brought leprosy from India, Brazil, the Caribbean and Mexico.
Dengue fever is exceptionally rare in America, though common in Ecuador, Peru, Vietnam, Thailand, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Mexico. Recently, according to the report, there was a virulent outbreak of dengue fever in Webb County, Texas, which borders Mexico. Though dengue is usually not a fatal disease, dengue hemorrhagic fever routinely kills.
Polio was eradicated from America, but now reappears in illegal immigrants as do intestinal parasites, says the report.
Malaria was obliterated, but now is re-emerging in Texas.
The Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons report includes a strong prescription for protecting the health of Americans:
Closing America's borders with fences, high-tech security devices and troops.
Rescinding the U.S. citizenship of "anchor babies."
Punishing the aiding and abetting of illegal aliens as a crime.
An end to amnesty programs.
Illegal aliens threaten
U.S. medical system
Docs journal reports hospitals being closed, previously vanquished diseases being spread
© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com
Cristobal Silverio emigrated illegally from Mexico to Stockton, Calif., in 1997 to work as a fruit picker.
He brought with him his wife, Felipa, and three children, 19, 12 and 8 – all illegals. When Felipa gave birth to her fourth child, daughter Flor, the family had what is referred to as an "anchor baby" – an American citizen by birth who provided the entire Silverio clan a ticket to remain in the U.S. permanently.
But Flor was born premature, spent three months in the neonatal incubator and cost the San Joaquin Hospital more than $300,000. Meanwhile, oldest daughter Lourdes married an illegal alien gave birth to a daughter, too. Her name is Esmeralda. And Felipa had yet another child, Cristian.
The two Silverio anchor babies generate $1,000 per month in public welfare funding for the family. Flor gets $600 a month for asthma. Healthy Cristian gets $400. While the Silverios earned $18,000 last year picking fruit, they picked up another $12,000 for their two "anchor babies."
While President Bush says the U.S. needs more "cheap labor" from south of the border to do jobs Americans aren't willing to do, the case of the Silverios shows there are indeed uncalculated costs involved in the importation of such labor – public support and uninsured medical costs.
In fact, the increasing number of illegal aliens coming into the United States is forcing the closure of hospitals, spreading previously vanquished diseases and threatening to destroy America's prized health-care system, says a report in the spring issue of the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons.
"The influx of illegal aliens has serious hidden medical consequences," writes Madeleine Pelner Cosman, author of the report. "We judge reality primarily by what we see. But what we do not see can be more dangerous, more expensive, and more deadly than what is seen."
According to her study, 84 California hospitals are closing their doors as a direct result of the rising number of illegal aliens and their non-reimbursed tax on the system.
"Anchor babies," the author writes, "born to illegal aliens instantly qualify as citizens for welfare benefits and have caused enormous rises in Medicaid costs and stipends under Supplemental Security Income and Disability Income."
In addition, the report says, "many illegal aliens harbor fatal diseases that American medicine fought and vanquished long ago, such as drug-resistant tuberculosis, malaria, leprosy, plague, polio, dengue, and Chagas disease."
While politicians often mention there are 43 million without health insurance in this country, the report estimates that at least 25 percent of those are illegal immigrants. The figure could be as high as 50 percent.
Not being insured does not mean they don't get medical care.
Under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act of 1985, hospitals are obligated to treat the uninsured without reimbursement.
"Government imposes viciously stiff fines and penalties on any physician and any hospital refusing to treat any patient that a zealous prosecutor deems an emergency patient, even though the hospital or physician screened and declared the patient's illness or injury non-emergency," says the report. "But government pays neither hospital nor physician for treatments. In addition to the fiscal attack on medical facilities and personnel, EMTALA is a handy truncheon with which to pummel politically unpopular physicians by falsely accusing them of violating EMTALA."
According to the report, between 1993 and 2003, 60 California hospitals closed because half their services became unpaid. Another 24 California hospitals verge on closure, the author writes.
"American hospitals welcome 'anchor babies,'" says the report. "Illegal alien women come to the hospital in labor and drop their little anchors, each of whom pulls its illegal alien mother, father, and siblings into permanent residency simply by being born within our borders. Anchor babies are citizens, and instantly qualify for public welfare aid: Between 300,000 and 350,000 anchor babies annually become citizens because of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and the State wherein they reside."
Among the organizations directing illegal aliens into America's medical systems, according to the report, are the Ford Foundation-funded Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, the National Immigration Law Center, the American Immigration Lawyers Association, the American Bar Association's Commission on Immigration Policy, Practice, and Pro Bono, the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, the National Council of La Raza, George Soros's Open Society Institute, the Migration Policy Institute, the National Network for Immigration and Refugee Rights and the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Because drug addiction and alcoholism are classified as diseases and disabilities, the fiscal toll on the health-care system rises.
When Linda Torres was arrested in Bakersfield, Calif., with about $8,500 in small bills in a sack, the police originally thought it was stolen money, explained the report. It was her Social Security lump sum for her disability -- heroin addiction.
"Today, legal immigrants must demonstrate that they are free of communicable diseases and drug addiction to qualify for lawful permanent residency green cards," writes Cosman, a medical lawyer, who formerly taught medical students at the City University of New York. "Illegal aliens simply cross our borders medically unexamined, hiding in their bodies any number of communicable diseases."
Many illegals entering this country have tuberculosis, according to the report.
"That disease had largely disappeared from America, thanks to excellent hygiene and powerful modern drugs such as isoniazid and rifampin," says the report. "TB's swift, deadly return now is lethal for about 60 percent of those infected because of new Multi-Drug Resistant Tuberculosis. Until recently MDR-TB was endemic to Mexico. This Mycobacterium tuberculosis is resistant to at least two major anti-tubercular drugs. Ordinary TB usually is cured in six months with four drugs that cost about $2,000. MDR-TB takes 24 months with many expensive drugs that cost around $250,000 with toxic side effects. Each illegal with MDR-TB coughs and infects 10 to 30 people, who will not show symptoms immediately. Latent disease explodes later.
TB was virtually absent in Virginia until in 2002, when it spiked a 17 percent increase, but Prince William County, just south of Washington, D.C., had a much larger rise of 188 percent. Public health officials blamed immigrants. In 2001 the Indiana School of Medicine studied an outbreak of MDR-TB, and traced it to Mexican illegal aliens. The Queens, New York, health department attributed 81 percent of new TB cases in 2001 to immigrants. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ascribed 42 percent of all new TB cases to 'foreign born' people who have up to eight times higher incidences apparently, 66 percent of all TB cases coming to America originate in Mexico, the Philippines and Vietnam."
Other health threats from illegals include, according to the report:
Chagas disease, also called American trypanosomiasis or "kissing bug disease," is transmitted by the reduviid bug, which prefers to bite the lips and face. The protozoan parasite that it carries, Trypanosoma cruzi, infects 18 million people annually in Latin America and causes 50,000 deaths. The disease also infiltrates America's blood supply. Chagas affects blood transfusions and transplanted organs. No cure exists. Hundreds of blood recipients may be silently infected.
Leprosy, also known as Hansen's disease, was so rare in America that in 40 years only 900 people were afflicted. Suddenly, in the past three years America has more than 7,000 cases of leprosy. Leprosy now is endemic to northeastern states because illegal aliens and other immigrants brought leprosy from India, Brazil, the Caribbean and Mexico.
Dengue fever is exceptionally rare in America, though common in Ecuador, Peru, Vietnam, Thailand, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Mexico. Recently, according to the report, there was a virulent outbreak of dengue fever in Webb County, Texas, which borders Mexico. Though dengue is usually not a fatal disease, dengue hemorrhagic fever routinely kills.
Polio was eradicated from America, but now reappears in illegal immigrants as do intestinal parasites, says the report.
Malaria was obliterated, but now is re-emerging in Texas.
The Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons report includes a strong prescription for protecting the health of Americans:
Closing America's borders with fences, high-tech security devices and troops.
Rescinding the U.S. citizenship of "anchor babies."
Punishing the aiding and abetting of illegal aliens as a crime.
An end to amnesty programs.
TRUE AMERICANS?!?!?! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA
we all came from africa big dawg. the native americans came here from siberia on the land bridge. should we just fence this whole place off as a national park since nobody was magically placed here? the native americans stole this land from the deer. lol.
we all came from africa big dawg. the native americans came here from siberia on the land bridge. should we just fence this whole place off as a national park since nobody was magically placed here? the native americans stole this land from the deer. lol.
Do you understand inflation and how a rise in income will compensate for higher prices?
Read the following, and remember the bold emphasis is mine
------------------------------------------------
Proponents of a new temporary worker program argue that increased immigration enforcement would lead to fewer illegal agricultural workers and, as a consequence, the American consumer would face a major increase in the cost of food. This is factually incorrect according to experts. Dr. Philip Martin, a leading academic authority on agricultural labor, notes that American consumers now spend more on alcoholic beverages on average than they spend on fresh fruits and vegetables.1
An average household currently spends about $370 per year on fruits and vegetables. If curtailing illegal alien agricultural labor caused tighter labor conditions and a 40 percent increase in wages, the increased cost to the American family would be $9 a year, or about 2.4 cents per day. Yet for the farm laborer, the change would mean an increase in earnings from $8,800 to $12,350 for each 1,000 hours of work (25 weeks if the worker worked 40-hour weeks). That increase would move the worker from beneath the federal poverty line to above it. 2
According to Dr. Martin, "…consumers who pay $1 for a pound of apples, or $1 for a head of lettuce, are giving 16 to 19 cents to the farmer and 5 to 6 cents to the farm worker." 3 Therefore, a 40 percent increase in the 5 to 6 cents a pound that the farm worker receives would amount to an increase of about 2 cents per pound that would probably be passed on to the consumer.
Although this recent finding about agricultural labor and produce costs may not have been known by those making the alarmist statements about rising market costs, they certainly should have known better on the basis of earlier studies. For example, in 1996 the Center for Immigration Studies published a study by another academic expert that reported similar results.4 That study found that, "The removal of illegal workers from the seasonal agricultural workforce would increase the summer-fall supermarket prices of fresh fruits and vegetables by about 6 percent in the short run and 3 percent in the intermediate term. During the winter-spring seasons, prices would rise more than 3 percent in the short term and less then 2 percent in the intermediate term." 5
An example of the misleading information used to bolster efforts of agricultural labor employers to obtain greater access to cheap, exploitable foreign workers may be seen in a research study published by Arizona State University that estimated that wages would have to rise by 41.7% to replace an estimated 60% of agricultural workers who are illegal aliens and that this could cost an additional $8.84 billion annually to be absorbed by the consumer or the producer. 6
What is misleading about such claims is that they ignore that there is a visa program for foreign agricultural workers that allows an unlimited number of annual entries of legal workers if the employer first tries to find American workers, complies with protections for the foreign workers, and pays wages high enough to not undercut wages for American workers. This program assures that employers could replace illegal foreign workers with legal ones without the major wage and cost increases estimated by the researchers. But, because it is cheaper for the employer to hire illegal workers, the program has been underused. In fiscal year 2004, there were 22,141 legal entries by agricultural workers using H-2A visas.
It is also useful to keep in mind that seasonal crop agriculture is only a small share of the value of the country's overall agricultural production. In 2004, livestock production accounted for 51.2 percent of total agricultural production while crops accounted for the balance. Among the crops, vegetable production accounted for 7.2 percent of total agricultural production and fruits accounted for 6.4 percent. Mechanized crops, such as corn, soybeans, wheat, hay, and cotton, accounted for a larger share of the value of agricultural production than fruits and vegetables.7 And even among the fruit and vegetable crops, some are harvested mechanically rather than by seasonal crop laborers.
Why then couldn't the agricultural employers use the legal temporary worker program to meet their need for workers rather than hiring illegal aliens? They could, and some do already. However, the protections in that system for both American workers - so that it can be used only if there are not American workers available, and to prevent the program from undercutting wages - and for the foreign temporary workers - setting requirements for housing and wages - make it more expensive for employers than hiring on-the-spot illegal workers.
The lack of enforcement against employers who employ illegal alien workers has allowed so many employers to hire so many illegal workers that wages in seasonal crop agriculture have decreased over recent decades after adjustment for inflation. As a result those employers who want to have a legal workforce are at a serious competitive disadvantage if they insist on hiring only legal workers. This situation will not be reversed until enforcement measures are comprehensively and effectively administered to restore a level playing field in the seasonal crop agricultural sector.
Since 1986, immigration enforcement authorities have been effectively barred from entering the property of an agricultural employer without a warrant to determine whether workers are illegal aliens.8 Although an employer could give consent to an enforcement operation without a warrant, an employer of illegal aliens is unlikely to do so because an investigation could result in disruption of a harvest and possible liability for hiring illegal alien workers.
The enforcement provisions in both the immigration reform bill passed by the House of Representatives in December 2005 (H.R.4437) and by the Senate in May 2006 (S.2611) would require employers to verify the legal work status of employees. These provisions, if enacted into law, would not, however, limit the ability of an agricultural employer to employ workers off of the books and avoid detection because of the limitation on investigations in the open field.
Would an American family be willing to contemplate an additional cost in agricultural produce of about a quarter of a dollar a day - considerably less than a beer? Would most Americans support such a change if it meant getting effective control over illegal immigration and bringing wages for seasonal crop laborers above the poverty line? It seems unlikely that many Americans would say no to either question.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Martin, Philip, PhD., Professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of California-Davis, "How we Eat: 2004," Rural Migration News Vol. 13 No. 4, January 2006.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Huffman, Wallace, Ph.D. and Alan McCunn, "How Much Is that Tomato in the Window? Retail Produce Prices Without Illegal Farmworkers," Center for Immigration Studies, February 1996.
Ibid.
“Economic Impact of Restrictions on Foreign Labor and the Produce Industry,” NFAPP #05-01a, Arizona State University, February 2005
Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2005-2006, Table 801, U.S. Department of Commerce.
INA Sec. 287(e) provides that, "…an officer or employee of the [immigration] Service may not enter without the consent of the owner (or agent thereof) or a properly executed warrant onto the premises of a farm or other outdoor agricultural operation for the purpose of interrogating a person believed to be an alien as to the person's right to be or to remain in the United States."
Read the following, and remember the bold emphasis is mine
------------------------------------------------
Proponents of a new temporary worker program argue that increased immigration enforcement would lead to fewer illegal agricultural workers and, as a consequence, the American consumer would face a major increase in the cost of food. This is factually incorrect according to experts. Dr. Philip Martin, a leading academic authority on agricultural labor, notes that American consumers now spend more on alcoholic beverages on average than they spend on fresh fruits and vegetables.1
An average household currently spends about $370 per year on fruits and vegetables. If curtailing illegal alien agricultural labor caused tighter labor conditions and a 40 percent increase in wages, the increased cost to the American family would be $9 a year, or about 2.4 cents per day. Yet for the farm laborer, the change would mean an increase in earnings from $8,800 to $12,350 for each 1,000 hours of work (25 weeks if the worker worked 40-hour weeks). That increase would move the worker from beneath the federal poverty line to above it. 2
According to Dr. Martin, "…consumers who pay $1 for a pound of apples, or $1 for a head of lettuce, are giving 16 to 19 cents to the farmer and 5 to 6 cents to the farm worker." 3 Therefore, a 40 percent increase in the 5 to 6 cents a pound that the farm worker receives would amount to an increase of about 2 cents per pound that would probably be passed on to the consumer.
Although this recent finding about agricultural labor and produce costs may not have been known by those making the alarmist statements about rising market costs, they certainly should have known better on the basis of earlier studies. For example, in 1996 the Center for Immigration Studies published a study by another academic expert that reported similar results.4 That study found that, "The removal of illegal workers from the seasonal agricultural workforce would increase the summer-fall supermarket prices of fresh fruits and vegetables by about 6 percent in the short run and 3 percent in the intermediate term. During the winter-spring seasons, prices would rise more than 3 percent in the short term and less then 2 percent in the intermediate term." 5
An example of the misleading information used to bolster efforts of agricultural labor employers to obtain greater access to cheap, exploitable foreign workers may be seen in a research study published by Arizona State University that estimated that wages would have to rise by 41.7% to replace an estimated 60% of agricultural workers who are illegal aliens and that this could cost an additional $8.84 billion annually to be absorbed by the consumer or the producer. 6
What is misleading about such claims is that they ignore that there is a visa program for foreign agricultural workers that allows an unlimited number of annual entries of legal workers if the employer first tries to find American workers, complies with protections for the foreign workers, and pays wages high enough to not undercut wages for American workers. This program assures that employers could replace illegal foreign workers with legal ones without the major wage and cost increases estimated by the researchers. But, because it is cheaper for the employer to hire illegal workers, the program has been underused. In fiscal year 2004, there were 22,141 legal entries by agricultural workers using H-2A visas.
It is also useful to keep in mind that seasonal crop agriculture is only a small share of the value of the country's overall agricultural production. In 2004, livestock production accounted for 51.2 percent of total agricultural production while crops accounted for the balance. Among the crops, vegetable production accounted for 7.2 percent of total agricultural production and fruits accounted for 6.4 percent. Mechanized crops, such as corn, soybeans, wheat, hay, and cotton, accounted for a larger share of the value of agricultural production than fruits and vegetables.7 And even among the fruit and vegetable crops, some are harvested mechanically rather than by seasonal crop laborers.
Why then couldn't the agricultural employers use the legal temporary worker program to meet their need for workers rather than hiring illegal aliens? They could, and some do already. However, the protections in that system for both American workers - so that it can be used only if there are not American workers available, and to prevent the program from undercutting wages - and for the foreign temporary workers - setting requirements for housing and wages - make it more expensive for employers than hiring on-the-spot illegal workers.
The lack of enforcement against employers who employ illegal alien workers has allowed so many employers to hire so many illegal workers that wages in seasonal crop agriculture have decreased over recent decades after adjustment for inflation. As a result those employers who want to have a legal workforce are at a serious competitive disadvantage if they insist on hiring only legal workers. This situation will not be reversed until enforcement measures are comprehensively and effectively administered to restore a level playing field in the seasonal crop agricultural sector.
Since 1986, immigration enforcement authorities have been effectively barred from entering the property of an agricultural employer without a warrant to determine whether workers are illegal aliens.8 Although an employer could give consent to an enforcement operation without a warrant, an employer of illegal aliens is unlikely to do so because an investigation could result in disruption of a harvest and possible liability for hiring illegal alien workers.
The enforcement provisions in both the immigration reform bill passed by the House of Representatives in December 2005 (H.R.4437) and by the Senate in May 2006 (S.2611) would require employers to verify the legal work status of employees. These provisions, if enacted into law, would not, however, limit the ability of an agricultural employer to employ workers off of the books and avoid detection because of the limitation on investigations in the open field.
Would an American family be willing to contemplate an additional cost in agricultural produce of about a quarter of a dollar a day - considerably less than a beer? Would most Americans support such a change if it meant getting effective control over illegal immigration and bringing wages for seasonal crop laborers above the poverty line? It seems unlikely that many Americans would say no to either question.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Martin, Philip, PhD., Professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of California-Davis, "How we Eat: 2004," Rural Migration News Vol. 13 No. 4, January 2006.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Huffman, Wallace, Ph.D. and Alan McCunn, "How Much Is that Tomato in the Window? Retail Produce Prices Without Illegal Farmworkers," Center for Immigration Studies, February 1996.
Ibid.
“Economic Impact of Restrictions on Foreign Labor and the Produce Industry,” NFAPP #05-01a, Arizona State University, February 2005
Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2005-2006, Table 801, U.S. Department of Commerce.
INA Sec. 287(e) provides that, "…an officer or employee of the [immigration] Service may not enter without the consent of the owner (or agent thereof) or a properly executed warrant onto the premises of a farm or other outdoor agricultural operation for the purpose of interrogating a person believed to be an alien as to the person's right to be or to remain in the United States."
I posted this earlier
Illegal Immigration Hurts African Americans; Vanderbilt Professor Believes Congressional Black Caucus Is Ignoring the Issue
NASHVILLE, Tenn., May 1 (AScribe Newswire) -- New research by a Vanderbilt professor of law and political science found that illegal immigration is hurting African Americans and the Congressional Black Caucus is not doing enough about it.
In a new book of essays called "Debating Immigration," which Carol Swain edited and contributed to, Swain said that African Americans are losing more jobs to illegal immigrants than other racial or ethic groups, yet low income black workers don't have political input in the debate.
"African Americans have been left devoid of a strong black voice in Congress on a topic that affects them deeply, given their high unemployment rates and historic struggle to get quality housing, health care, education and other goods and services," said Swain.
Swain used a study conducted by the Pew Hispanic Center, which found high unemployment rates among African Americans and Hispanics was partially attributed to the large number of low-skilled immigrants. Swain added that lax or non-existent immigration rules help businesses get away with hiring illegal immigrants instead of legal workers.
"The greatest competition occurs among people at the margins of society; a multi-racial group that includes poorly educated blacks, whites and Hispanics who compete against each other and against new immigrants for low-wage, low-skill jobs."
Swain found that cuts in governmental programs, like student loans, make it harder for low-income African American students to train for higher paying jobs.
Swain also found that some African Americans feel threatened by surges of immigrants to the United States because of the immigrants' potential impact on affirmative action. Swain said any parallel between immigrant issues and the black civil rights movement is weak.
"Most illegal immigrants have willingly left their homelands to seek their fortunes in a more prosperous nation. They were not brought in chains," she said.
Swain said that by not taking a stand on immigration, the Congressional Black Caucus is ignoring the interests of their constituency.
Swain found the CBC does not list immigration reform as a legislative priority and the CBC only mentioned immigration in one press release out of almost a hundred on its web site. Swain said some of the lawmakers in the CBC have large numbers of Hispanic constituents in their districts, which may lead to a conflict of interest.
Swain said unless there are big changes within the CBC, there will not be official black representation on the immigration issue and she believes that is hurting African Americans.
Debating Immigration is a compilation of essays from some of the world's leading experts on immigration. It is the first of its kind to examine the issues of race and religion as they apply to contemporary immigration issues.
- - - -
CONTACT: Amy Wolf, 615-322-NEWS, [email protected]
NOTE TO EDITORS: Vanderbilt has a campus broadcast facility with a dedicated fiber optic line for live TV interviews and a radio ISDN line. A high resolution photo of Carol Swain is available at www.vanderbilt.edu/news.
Illegal Immigration Hurts African Americans; Vanderbilt Professor Believes Congressional Black Caucus Is Ignoring the Issue
NASHVILLE, Tenn., May 1 (AScribe Newswire) -- New research by a Vanderbilt professor of law and political science found that illegal immigration is hurting African Americans and the Congressional Black Caucus is not doing enough about it.
In a new book of essays called "Debating Immigration," which Carol Swain edited and contributed to, Swain said that African Americans are losing more jobs to illegal immigrants than other racial or ethic groups, yet low income black workers don't have political input in the debate.
"African Americans have been left devoid of a strong black voice in Congress on a topic that affects them deeply, given their high unemployment rates and historic struggle to get quality housing, health care, education and other goods and services," said Swain.
Swain used a study conducted by the Pew Hispanic Center, which found high unemployment rates among African Americans and Hispanics was partially attributed to the large number of low-skilled immigrants. Swain added that lax or non-existent immigration rules help businesses get away with hiring illegal immigrants instead of legal workers.
"The greatest competition occurs among people at the margins of society; a multi-racial group that includes poorly educated blacks, whites and Hispanics who compete against each other and against new immigrants for low-wage, low-skill jobs."
Swain found that cuts in governmental programs, like student loans, make it harder for low-income African American students to train for higher paying jobs.
Swain also found that some African Americans feel threatened by surges of immigrants to the United States because of the immigrants' potential impact on affirmative action. Swain said any parallel between immigrant issues and the black civil rights movement is weak.
"Most illegal immigrants have willingly left their homelands to seek their fortunes in a more prosperous nation. They were not brought in chains," she said.
Swain said that by not taking a stand on immigration, the Congressional Black Caucus is ignoring the interests of their constituency.
Swain found the CBC does not list immigration reform as a legislative priority and the CBC only mentioned immigration in one press release out of almost a hundred on its web site. Swain said some of the lawmakers in the CBC have large numbers of Hispanic constituents in their districts, which may lead to a conflict of interest.
Swain said unless there are big changes within the CBC, there will not be official black representation on the immigration issue and she believes that is hurting African Americans.
Debating Immigration is a compilation of essays from some of the world's leading experts on immigration. It is the first of its kind to examine the issues of race and religion as they apply to contemporary immigration issues.
- - - -
CONTACT: Amy Wolf, 615-322-NEWS, [email protected]
NOTE TO EDITORS: Vanderbilt has a campus broadcast facility with a dedicated fiber optic line for live TV interviews and a radio ISDN line. A high resolution photo of Carol Swain is available at www.vanderbilt.edu/news.
You go ahead and follow your dreams, the people I speak of are content with just being able to suppor their families and feed their children.
I am not one to say who needs scapegoats or not, but I didn't bring up African Americans, you did. You're the one that started talking about how Illegal Immigrants take jobs from blacks, sounds like a scapegoat to me. And about Mexico's shit head president, what would you think if everybody judged the US on what our shit head president says daily? Fuck Mexico's president.
And these people aren't arguing with anyone, they're working! It's people like you and I who are arguing about it, while these people continue to work. Nobody points a finger at "the most vulnerable people", they just want an opportunity to work. I still don't get why that doesn't get through your head.
Didn't you say you're in the bay? Isn't that part of California? I don't feel that I have to explain ANYTHING to you regarding what Mexicans have contributed to this country. If you are too stubborn and ignorant to see it and read about it yourself, I can't help you. And I know it isn't the slave days, but have we stopped eating fruit and vegetables or using cotton? No! Agriculture is a very important part of the economy, and you don't seem to understand this.
You are the one that brought up black people, I am simply saying that most illegal Mexicans come here to work and support their families. Of course some are criminals, but you seem to think that the majority of them are. (disregard the illegal factor) I realize that you're black because you make it obvious in your biases, and I'm sure the same could be said for me. However, if you really knew your US History as well as you say you do, you would know exactly what Mexicans have contributed to this country throughout the years. This has nothing to do with what blacks has done, and I'm not comparing...
My emphasis in bold is the most rediculous statement that has ever been made in the GOM forums since I've been here. You are acting like blacks are a bunch of angels going around spreading the word of God and loving their neighbors. I say that if an "illegal" gets caught with criminal activity, he should get deported, and this DOES happen. I am just saying that the ones who are here to work, should be allowed!
The stuttering was supposed to be a light joke, since this is some serious shit we're talking back and forth. Obviously you didn't feel the same. And it's no conspiracy that the CIA is and has been corrupt since it started. And I agree with you that the pesky immigrant criminals should be kicked out, but not the ones who are here working.
Yeah, and those who abuse the system have a larger negative impact than illegals who are working hard everyday to earn their money.
No, what you don't seem to understand is that most Mexican immigrants who come to this country get here with nothing, while most Asians and Indians have to have some sort of money in order to actually even get here. Therefore, your comparison of the Asian communties success towards the Mexican communities struggles is a complete falacy. You cannot compare, for reasons I already mentioned.
How is it propaganda when there are NO other people lining up to do these jobs? And phillipinos were a HUGE part of the farmworker movements with Cesar Chavez. I don't know if you consider them Asians, but they were doing the same shit that Mexicans were doing in the fields. The reason they aren't more educated isn't because of laziness, I want to see your ass out in the fields for 10 hours a day in the hot sun, and then we could see who's really lazy.
1. LOL
2. Laziness doesn't mean coming to this country and working hard, laborious jobs for cheap wages. The legalization system is a fuckin' mess...
3. If you say so.
I am not one to say who needs scapegoats or not, but I didn't bring up African Americans, you did. You're the one that started talking about how Illegal Immigrants take jobs from blacks, sounds like a scapegoat to me. And about Mexico's shit head president, what would you think if everybody judged the US on what our shit head president says daily? Fuck Mexico's president.
And these people aren't arguing with anyone, they're working! It's people like you and I who are arguing about it, while these people continue to work. Nobody points a finger at "the most vulnerable people", they just want an opportunity to work. I still don't get why that doesn't get through your head.
Didn't you say you're in the bay? Isn't that part of California? I don't feel that I have to explain ANYTHING to you regarding what Mexicans have contributed to this country. If you are too stubborn and ignorant to see it and read about it yourself, I can't help you. And I know it isn't the slave days, but have we stopped eating fruit and vegetables or using cotton? No! Agriculture is a very important part of the economy, and you don't seem to understand this.
You are the one that brought up black people, I am simply saying that most illegal Mexicans come here to work and support their families. Of course some are criminals, but you seem to think that the majority of them are. (disregard the illegal factor) I realize that you're black because you make it obvious in your biases, and I'm sure the same could be said for me. However, if you really knew your US History as well as you say you do, you would know exactly what Mexicans have contributed to this country throughout the years. This has nothing to do with what blacks has done, and I'm not comparing...
My emphasis in bold is the most rediculous statement that has ever been made in the GOM forums since I've been here. You are acting like blacks are a bunch of angels going around spreading the word of God and loving their neighbors. I say that if an "illegal" gets caught with criminal activity, he should get deported, and this DOES happen. I am just saying that the ones who are here to work, should be allowed!
The stuttering was supposed to be a light joke, since this is some serious shit we're talking back and forth. Obviously you didn't feel the same. And it's no conspiracy that the CIA is and has been corrupt since it started. And I agree with you that the pesky immigrant criminals should be kicked out, but not the ones who are here working.
Yeah, and those who abuse the system have a larger negative impact than illegals who are working hard everyday to earn their money.
No, what you don't seem to understand is that most Mexican immigrants who come to this country get here with nothing, while most Asians and Indians have to have some sort of money in order to actually even get here. Therefore, your comparison of the Asian communties success towards the Mexican communities struggles is a complete falacy. You cannot compare, for reasons I already mentioned.
How is it propaganda when there are NO other people lining up to do these jobs? And phillipinos were a HUGE part of the farmworker movements with Cesar Chavez. I don't know if you consider them Asians, but they were doing the same shit that Mexicans were doing in the fields. The reason they aren't more educated isn't because of laziness, I want to see your ass out in the fields for 10 hours a day in the hot sun, and then we could see who's really lazy.
1. LOL
2. Laziness doesn't mean coming to this country and working hard, laborious jobs for cheap wages. The legalization system is a fuckin' mess...
3. If you say so.
The man was a straight up Unionist, so he obviously felt that newcoming illegal immigrants hurt his possibilities for organization among farmworkers, since it's harder with so many people willing to work for cheaper. He was more worried about the farmworkers and their treatment rather than just Mexicans in general...