Announcement

**acelaw** · 10-20-2003, 10:51 AM

High Costs Of Cheap Labor

NEWS!!! NOT IN N.Y.: New York City's Police Department and New York State's Department of Motor Vehicles rejected Matricula Consular identification cards issued by the Mexican government as forms of ID for illegal Mexican immigrants because of security concerns, the New York Times reported.

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The price of the great Mexican exodus is a staggering transfer of wealth which continues to climb. Cheap labor is really not cheap at all. Taxpayers foot the bill for increased use of schools, public health, welfare, and new infrastructure. Employers are happy to get a large pool of compliant and inexpensive workers, but the workers pay little or nothing in taxes. When children arrive (at taxpayer expense), start getting food stamps, and then add to the numbers in schools, the cheap labor actually costs much more than the wages earned. But employers like the subsidized labor, Democrats salivate at the thought of the potential votes, and Republicans are afraid of alienating anyone.

Statistics from the Weekly Standard, American Conservative Union and other sources illustrate:
THE VERY HIGH COSTS OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION.
"¢ Illegal immigrants cost $68 billion in annual welfare payments – equaling $1000 per taxpaying family. (Compared to the estimated $60 billion for the war in Iraq.)
"¢ The proportion of immigrants on welfare is 50 percent higher than native born Americans. (Legal immigrants are barred from welfare for 10 years.)
"¢ They are the sole source of school overcrowding. Educating their children costs $30 billion a year.
"¢ The cost of incarcerating illegal immigrants is estimated at $500 million a year. In the year 2000, there were 23,477 illegal immigrants charged with federal crimes.
"¢ Immigration costs U.S. born workers $133 billion a year in job losses.

States are freeing prisoners, closing libraries, hiking college tuition, even halting prosecution of abusive spouses, while federal and state officials are scrambling to plug budget gaps that widen every day primarily due to illegal immigration.

HEALTH CARE COSTS FROM OPEN BORDERS
The Phyllis Schafley Report September 2002

The big health-care debate in Congress last summer was over the wrong issue. Instead of threatening to bankrupt Medicare by forcing the taxpayers to buy prescription drugs for seniors, Congress should relieve the taxpayers and paying-patients of the burden of providing hospital care for illegal aliens.

From Florida to California, illegal aliens show up at hospital emergency rooms and the costs are passed along to paying patients and to local taxpayers. The American Hospital Association estimates that the costs of bad-debt and charity care run into the billions.

A Martin County, Florida, hospital has spent $900,000 (with no end in sight) caring for a Guatemalan illegal who appeared at the emergency room two years ago with a brain injury after an automobile accident. He has no money and no family, but somehow he has a lawyer who has successfully prevented deportation to Guatemala.

A Jamaican illegal spent 17 months under care at the same hospital. After he ran up a bill of $500,000, he was finally sent home to Jamaica.

St. Mary's Medical Center in West Palm Beach treats one or two illegals a week and Delray Medical Center about 75 a month. Hospitals are required to provide care to anyone who shows up with a life-threatening condition.

Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) has persuaded the General Accounting Office to study the financial costs that illegal aliens impose on hospitals. He says "we need to remedy this problem before we can no longer afford to take care of Americans."

Many Arizona hospitals have to treat automobile accident victims of dangerous driving by what are called "people smugglers." Two Tucson hospitals were stuck with treating a half dozen illegal aliens who were injured in a nighttime crash of their car traveling on the highway at 100 miles an hour.

A San Antonio hospital treated victims suffering from dehydration after up to 70 men, women and children were discovered by police in a tractor-trailer rig at a truck stop. Another tractor-trailer rig loaded with 40 illegal aliens, two of them dead from suffocation, was found in July in Dallas.

The Palomar Medical Center in Escondido, California, has been caring for a comatose Mexican illegal ever since he got drunk and was struck by a car in May. He can't pay for the care, of course, but his lawyer is fighting his deportation to a Tijuana hospital.

San Diego hospitals had to face the burden of caring for 31 accident victims (not counting the seven who were killed) when a van carrying illegals from Mexico and Brazil crashed going the wrong way on an interstate at night with its headlights turned off.

Some aliens look upon an automobile accident as their entry ticket into the United States. They get treated at an American hospital and then may be released into no one's custody, and no one has any figures on the numbers.

Last year the taxpayers who finance Medicaid paid the hospital bill for 6,000 illegal aliens to have their babies in Colorado. This totaled $30 million, an average of $5,000 per baby. Those 6,000 births to illegal aliens are 40% of the births Medicaid paid for in Colorado. Those 6,000 babies immediately became U.S. citizens and qualified for all Medicaid services at a cost that is not even tabulated.

To get immediate care, the illegal only has to say she is "undocumented." Pregnant American mothers can't avoid their birth-of-a-baby expenses so easily. Denver Health is asking taxpayers to approve a bond issue to pay for a bigger obstetrics unit. The present unit was built for 1,600 births a year but last year it handled 3,500.

This Colorado information was reported by Al Knight of the Denver Post editorial board. He concluded with a fascinating comment: "There are many groups and interests that for one reason or another don't want this information to be available or to be discussed."

He didn't identify the "groups and interests."

Who they are would be a good question to ask your Member of Congress, along with why Congress isn't doing its duty to protect Americans from the influx of illegal aliens.

DISEASES ALIENS BRING INTO THE U.S.

Scores of Americans have come down with the disease called West Nile virus, and more than a dozen have already died.

The Louisiana Governor says his state "is an emergency situation."

Carried by mosquitoes, West Nile virus causes flu-like symptoms and a potentially fatal brain inflammation. There is no cure. Many horses have been infected.

West Nile virus is a disease that comes from central Africa, and it was unknown in the United States prior to 1999. Now it has been found in at least 34 states. Even the pro-immigration New York Times reported (8-13-02): "The wide swath that West Nile has cut in just three years illustrates how vulnerable the United States is to imported diseases."

The Centers for Disease Control recently announced the deaths of the first American victims of Chagas disease.

Chagas disease is caused by a parasite that is spread when a so-called "kissing bug" bites a human and then defecates while it feeds. The feces contain the parasite, which can enter the human either when the bitten person scratches the bite or from eating contaminated uncooked food.

Chagas infection can lead to various disorders such as obstruction of the colon or esophagus, and is often fatal if untreated.

The Chagas disease in the United States has been traced to a Central American immigrant. More than 16 million people are infected with the parasite in Central America, and health officials estimate that 100,000 Latin American residents in the United States now carry the parasite.

Immigration officials are supposed to screen out immigrants who are carrying diseases, but of course there is no health screening for illegal aliens, who are coming into our country by hundreds of thousands (some estimates say a million) every year.

Tuberculosis, which had been on the way to eradication in the United States, is now rising rapidly because of immigration. In California, the state health department reports that 75% of all TB patients were born outside the United States.

When are the American people going to wake up to the diseases, followed by the costs to our health care system, that result from the massive numbers of aliens coming into the United States at the present time, especially from Third World countries?

Instead of dealing with these existing health-care burdens, some members of Congress are trying to hit the taxpayers with even more costs for illegal aliens. They are trying to make illegal aliens eligible for in-state tuition rates at publicly funded colleges and universities.

Texas, California and New York are already subsidizing these aliens who have broken our laws while discriminating against students in lawful, taxpaying families from the other 49 states. A student from Arizona, for example, pays four times as much to attend the University of California as an illegal alien.

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In-State Tuition: Stay tuned for this topic. State lawmakers in the "Open Borders" crowd, even though it's barred by federal immigration law, believe you should pay for the college education of illegal immigrants. And there are many more things they want taxes dollars for to support illegal immigrants. (And it just doesn't seem to matter what the immigration laws say.)

This won't stop until you let your elected representatives know you've had enough. Start emailing, faxing, or writing today. Illegal immigration is one of the most important issues our Nation will ever face. Don't be silent. Your voice must be heard.

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MEXICANS TREATED IN U.S. COST MILLIONS
from the Associated Press Dec. 30, 2003

Texas - Ambulances regularly race across the bridges of the Rio Grande, bringing some of Mexico's sickest to the nearest U.S. emergency room.

Obligated by federal law, the hospitals provide the care and worry later about whether the billing addresses patients give them are accurate. Often the hospitals get stuck with the bill.

Immigrant patients have inflated medical expenses for insurance companies, Medicaid and paying customers, officials say.

One recent study by the U.S.-Mexico Border Counties Coalition, an American lobbying group, found U.S. border hospitals provided at least $200 million a year in uncompensated emergency care to illegal immigrants.

Texas Republican state Sen. Chris Harris said he was shocked by what he called the "dumping" of Mexicans on U.S. hospitals.

Policymakers are just beginning to assess the size of the problem.

**Aguila** · 10-20-2003, 12:33 PM

Acelaw:

You are the biggest ret.. in this board, you don't have the brain to answer the questions that are directly pointed to you and the only thing you do is copy and paste articles that not only are far from the truth but that used false stadistics and that are self-contradictory.

You have not answer me how the "unskilled immigrants" could take jobs from the "skilled americans"

If cheaper labor would not exist specially mexicans working in agriculture for mininum wage you would not be able to buy the apples and other fruits/vegetables for the price you are buying them.

Also do you know how much money these immigrants spend in clothing/food,electronics/cars/houses/investments, DID YOU EVER GO TO SCHOOL ACELAW AND LEARN WHAT INTERNAL CONSUMERS ARE ALL ABOUT?

What about the TAXES they pay in all this things that they BUY!

**lostinmex** · 10-20-2003, 05:14 PM

I think you are missing alot of info, you are leaving out what is paid in. I think you should focus your attention on something new . Immigrants are here to stay. Just look around, who is not an immigrant or a relitve of one. What is your heritage? I think you must of been hatched!

**mikki** · 10-20-2003, 09:48 PM

LOL

**acelaw** · 10-21-2003, 01:52 PM

I post the facts which are not my opinion , such as you post, because you do not take the time to do your research , you are mis-led to believe things that are not true. We have 10 million unskilled and under education Americans in this country.They have displaced Americans by working for less money.

You have not answer me how the "unskilled immigrants" could take jobs from the "skilled americans"

Tired & Poor:
Bankrupt Arguments for Mass, Unskilled Immigration
By Steven A. Camarota
National Review
September 3, 2001

Talks in August involving Secretary of State Powell, Attorney General Ashcroft, and their Mexican counterparts may have produced the broad outline of an immigration agreement. It would involve a two-step amnesty, first rechristening the approximately 4 million Mexicans illegally in the U.S. as "temporary" workers, then giving them permanent residence after a period of indenture of perhaps three to five years. Even more workers would then be imported from Mexico as "temporary" workers, and would eventually receive green cards.
Most critics of this amnesty have focused on the fact that it rewards lawbreakers and mocks the law-abiding; others have argued that there is no moral reason for singling out Mexicans at the expense of other nationalities. While these are reasonable objections, few commentators have asked the larger question: Is mass unskilled immigration from Mexico really good for the U.S.? In a new study, the Center for Immigration Studies uses the latest Census Bureau data to examine the prevalent assumptions surrounding this issue-and they turn out to be myths.
Their justification for unskilled immigration is, "Who else will clean my pool?" And it contains a kernel of truth, with regard to Mexican immigration. About two-thirds of all Mexican immigrants are high-school dropouts, and only 4 percent have a college degree. During the 1990s, Mexican immigration increased the number of dropouts in the U.S. workforce by 11 percent, while increasing the supply of all other workers by only half a percentage point. Thus, the effect of Mexican immigration on wages is confined to unskilled workers. Since the vast majority of natives have completed high school and are employed in higher-skilled occupations, most natives don't face significant job competition from Mexican immigrants.

READ THIS TWICE SO YOU GET IT./
But there's still a problem: More than 10 million adult native-born American workers lack a high-school education, and they are in direct competition with unskilled immigrants. The vast majority of Mexican immigrants work in such jobs: busboy, pool cleaner, and so on. These jobs are still overwhelmingly done by natives. The myth that immigrants only take jobs no one else wants persists primarily because middle-class Americans view most of these jobs as something they certainly would not want to do.
The increase in the supply of unskilled labor brought about by Mexican immigration reduced wages for high-school dropouts by about 5 percent in the 1990s-not so much because immigrants work for less and undercut natives (though that does happen), but rather because lower wages are an unavoidable byproduct of significantly increasing the supply of unskilled labor. It's basic economics: Increase the supply of something, and the price will fall.
The chief problem with lower wages for unskilled workers is that they are already the lowest paid; one need not be a liberal to acknowledge that beggaring the poor may contribute to social disharmony. It's true that these wage losses do not vanish into thin air: Lower wages for the poor should result in lower prices for consumers.
READ THIS TWICE THERE IS NO SAVINGS FOR CHEAP LABOR
But the savings are infinitesimal, precisely because unskilled workers earn such low wages to begin with. High-school dropouts account for less than 4 percent of total economic output. Thus, if Mexican immigration reduces wages for dropouts by 5 percent, prices for consumers are lowered by less than two-tenths of 1 percent. It is simply not possible for a high-tech economy like ours to derive large benefits from unskilled immigration.
Another myth has to do with welfare. While it is certainly true that the vast majority of Mexican immigrants come to work and not to use government services, there's also no question that very many end up using government services anyway. Even after welfare reform, 31 percent of all Mexican households in the U.S. use at least one major welfare program-double the 15 percent rate for natives. Clearly, one of the unintended consequences of an amnesty would almost certainly be to increase welfare costs still further.
Heavy use of welfare by Mexican immigrants stems not from moral defects or a lack of jobs, but rather from the very low incomes of Mexican immigrants. The modern American economy offers very limited opportunities for those with little education, and so poor workers or their children are often eligible for welfare programs, such as food stamps, public housing, or Medicaid.
Mexican immigrants also pay very little in taxes. By design, those with lower incomes pay much less in taxes than middle- and upper-class workers. This means that even if Mexican immigrants used welfare at the same rate as natives, they would still be a substantial drain on public coffers because their tax payments are dramatically lower.
While there is debate among researchers on the fiscal effects of immigrants overall, there is absolute consensus that immigrants with little education are a huge drain on the public budget. We at the Center for Immigration Studies estimate that the average Mexican immigrant will use $55,200 more in public services during his lifetime than he pays in taxes. In effect, Mexican immigration acts as a subsidy to businesses that employ unskilled workers, holding down labor costs while taxpayers pick up the tab for providing services to a much larger poor population. It's like any other subsidy: Businesses that receive it want it to continue, but for the nation as a whole, it's a bad deal.
Although the economic arguments against unskilled immigration are overwhelming, many advocates of an amnesty still defend it because they feel there is no alternative. But in fact, the problem isn't nearly as intractable as it may seem. The INS estimates that each year, 150,000 illegal aliens leave the country on their own, another 200,000 get green cards as part of the normal "legal" immigration process, 50,000 illegals are deported, and about 20,000 die. In sum, the illegal-alien population decreases by at least 400,000 people each year.
Of course, something like 600,000 new illegals arrive annually, and thus the total illegal population continues to grow. But the numbers leaving the illegal population are still huge; if we significantly reduce the number of new illegal aliens entering the country and increase (even if only modestly) the number who go home, the problem will largely take care of itself over time.
How do we do this? In the past, our efforts to control illegal immigration have focused almost exclusively on the border. While much remains to be done in this area, the real key to reducing illegal immigration is to cut illegals off from jobs. Unfortunately, the 1986 ban on hiring illegals has never been enforced. Although highly regarded pilot programs already exist, Congress has never provided funding to develop a national verification system that would enable employers to check quickly whether new hires have the right to work. Moreover, Congress has refused to increase funding for workplace enforcement, so we are left with an almost comical situation in which 300 INS inspectors attempt to enforce the ban on hiring the millions of illegals now in the country.
An integrated program of workplace enforcement and border control would cause a steady decline in the illegal population. Even the potential economic dislocation caused by such a policy would be minimal, since there is no possibility that all illegals will magically disappear overnight. This approach would increase wages for the poor, spur productivity gains, and protect American sovereignty. An amnesty, even if it's dressed up as a guest-worker program, can achieve none of these ends.

Economic and social costs of illegal immigration
The economic and social consequences of illegal immigration across the 1,940 mile long America-Mexico border are staggering. An average of 10,000 illegal aliens cross the border every day - over 3 million per year. A third will be caught and many of them immediately will try again. About half of those remaining will become permanent U.S. residents (3,500 per day).

Currently there are an estimated 9 to 11 million illegals in the U.S., double the 1994 level. A quarter-million illegal aliens from the Middle-east currently live in the U.S, and a growing number are entering by crossing the Mexican border.

FAIR research suggests that "between 40 and 50 percent of wage-loss among low-skilled Americans is due to the immigration of low-skilled workers. Some native workers lose not just wages but their jobs through immigrant competition. An estimated 1,880,000 American workers are displaced from their jobs every year by immigration; the cost for providing welfare and assistance to these Americans is over $15 billion a year."

80% of cocaine and 50% of heroin in the U.S. is smuggled across the border by Mexican nationals. Drug cartels spend a half-billion dollars per year bribing Mexico's corrupt generals and police officials, and armed confrontations between the Mexican army and U.S. Border Patrol agents are a real threat. There have been 118 documented incursions by the Mexican military over the last five years.

Illegal aliens have cost billions of taxpayer-funded dollars for medical services. Dozens of hospitals in Texas, New Mexico Arizona, and California, have been forced to close or face bankruptcy because of federally-mandated programs requiring free emergency room services to illegal aliens. Taxpayers pay half-a-billion dollars per year incarcerating illegal alien criminals.

THE MONEY SENT OUT OF THIS COUNTRY HURTS ALL AMERICANS, WE LOOSE THE TAX DOLLARS THAT THIS MONEY WOULD GENERATE HERE IF SPENT HERE, THIS TAKES AN UNDERSTANDING OF HOW OUR ENCOMIE WORKS.Its like a circle the employer pays you for work , that money is taxed, you spend the money on goods here it is taxed again, if it is sent out of country then we loose that dollar in our circle, so we must replace money sent out of this country 4 times over to replace the loss, so that means that the 130 billion sent yearly means we must generate 520 billion to replace that money lost.

$60 billion dollars are earned by illegal aliens in the U.S. each year. One of Mexico's largest revenue streams (after exports and oil sales) consists of money sent home by legal immigrants and illegal aliens working in the U.S. Economists say this will help Mexico reduce its $17.8 billion defecit and may bolster the peso. $10 billion dollars are sent back to Mexico annually, according to the Pew Hispanic Center, reported in an Associated Press article, up $800 million from the previous year. ($9 billion dollars were previously sent back annually, according to a September 25, 2002 NPR report). That figure equals what Mexico earns annually from tourism. This is a massive transfer of wealth from America - essentially from America's displaced working poor - to Mexico.

DO YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT THIS MEANS?yOU DO NOT WANT TO BELIVE THE FACTS BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT GOOD FOR AMERICANS, ONLY BENFIT MEXICO AT THE EXPANSE OF AMERICAN TAXPAYERS.

Immigration is a net drain on the economy; corporate interests reap the benefits of cheap labor, while taxpayers pay the infrastructural cost. FAIR research shows "the net annual cost of immigration has been estimated at between $67 and $87 billion a year. The National Academy of Sciences found that the net fiscal drain on American taxpayers is between $166 and $226 a year per native household. Even studies claiming some modest overall gain for the economy from immigration ($1 to $10 billion a year) have found that it is outweighed by the fiscal cost ($15 to $20 billion a year) to native taxpayers."

"In the NAFTA era, a staggering 87 percent of Mexico's imports go to the United States, while Mexicans living in the United States send home more than $8 billion annually. Fox has said he considers his constituency to include the 22 million to 24 million Mexicans and Mexican-Americans in the United States. Mexican candidates now make campaign stops in U.S. cities like Los Angeles, Phoenix and Fresno, Calif." (Mexico's muddle, Ruben Navarrette Jr., March 26, 2003)

For more information, see The Washington Times article and series Chaos along the border, October 6, 2002, the FAIR reports Immigration and the Economy, Immigration Lowers Wages for American Workers, and the article Record amount of remittances sent from US to Mexico. (a new broswer window will open for external articles).

If cheaper labor would not exist specially mexicans working in agriculture for mininum wage you would not be able to buy the apples and other fruits/vegetables for the price you are buying them.
" I think we have to be honest about our dependency on people to do jobs Americans will not."
- Gov. Gray Davis
" They are here paying taxes. They pay $1,400 more a year than they get back in assistance."|
- Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante
Davis and Bustamante are sellouts. They have sold out California by advancing policies that effectively decriminalize illegal immigration; that confer upon illegal aliens benefits that should be reserved for the state's lawful residents.
They have sold out America by proffering a privilege to illegals - a California driver's license - that undermines national security, as Davis himself acknowledged as recently as two years ago.
" The tragedy of Sept. 11 made it abundantly clear," the Democratic governor stated, "that the driver's license is more than just a license to drive; it is one of the primary documents we use to identify ourselves." He noted that "a driver's license was in the hands of terrorists who attacked America on that fateful day."
Yet, two years later, Davis is all too willing to put driver's licenses in the hands of potential terrorists. And Bustamante is no less willing.
Davis and Bustamante have sold out their state, sold out their country in hopes of ginning up enough Hispanic votes to tilt California's coming recall election in their respective favors.
Their pandering for brown votes is contemptible enough. But what really offends are their untenable rationales for rewarding those who steal across this nation's borders.
The reality is that Americans do not depend on illegal aliens to do jobs they will not. And illegals do not pay $1,400 more in taxes than they receive in benefits. Those myths are promulgated by those who are soft on illegal immigration; those who profit in some way from illegal immigration, either politically, financially or otherwise. Indeed, there were more than enough Americans willing to pick fruit and harvest produce, mow lawns and trim hedges, prepare meals and bus tables and clean up rooms and do laundry before the influx of more than 7 million illegal aliens.
And there still are many lower-skilled Americans available to do those jobs - like the 10 million native-born Americans lacking high school diplomas - as long they are not asked to accept Third World wages.
And even if the ranks of unskilled American workers are insufficient to do all the menial labor the economy requires, there are millions of lawful immigrants available to lend a hand. That includes the more than 5 million legal Mexican immigrants who lack high school diplomas.
In the meantime, the illegal alien population is a net drain on the coffers of California and other states no matter what Davis, Bustamante or other defenders of illegal immigration suggest.
Indeed, California spends at least $3 billion a year on illegal aliens, providing health, education and welfare at the expense of the state's taxpayers, incarcerating illegals who get themselves arrested committing non-immigration-related felonies.
When California's outlays are combined with those of the other 49 states as well as the federal government, illegal immigration costs this country more than $20 billion a year.
The only way Bustamante could come up with a net gain to California, to the United States of $1,400 per immigrant is if he refers to the tax contributions of legal immigrants, not illegals.
Because there is no doubt about it, illegal aliens consume more tax dollars than they contribute.
And if 7 million or so illegal aliens residing within this nation's borders were to return to the countries from whence they came, America's economy hardly would collapse.
Maybe a head of lettuce would cost a few nickels more. Maybe a car wash would cost an extra buck. That is more than a reasonable price to pay to restore the integrity of this nation's borders.
Gray Davis and Cruz Bustamante have made California an even bigger magnet for illegal aliens, not just those from south of the border, but also those from more dangerous parts of the world. They have placed their political ambitions above the state's best interests, above the national interest.
Perkins can be reached via e-mail at joseph.perkins@uniontrib.com.

Perpetual Poverty in Agricultural Labor
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BACKGROUND
Current efforts in the 105th Congress to enact a new agricultural guest worker program (S.2337) are based on the producers' claims of a tight labor market for seasonal workers. This legislative effort flies in the face of about a decade's worth of government and academic research data that has established that there is not only a surplus of agricultural workers in the United States, but that a tight labor market is exactly what is needed to improve wages and working conditions for the rural poor who live in poverty.
Researchers at the University of California-Davis have found that the proliferation of illegal aliens in agricultural labor is not just holding down wages and the cost of agricultural produce, it is also generating a growing population of persons living in poverty. They found that for every 100 new farm jobs, the number of persons in the area living in poverty rose by 139. Virtually all new workers and their family members end up in a marginal economic existence.
Salt Lake City Deseret News, August 4, 1998
The Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) of 1986 was opposed by agricultural interests because the employer sanctions against hiring illegal aliens adopted in that law were perceived as likely to end the supply of illegal aliens and financially ruin the producers. To ease their fears, a provision was adopted in the law that allowed for a supply of "replenishment agricultural workers" (RAW) to be admitted if a labor shortage were found to exist. To determine whether a shortage was arising, the Department of Labor set up a National Agricultural Worker Survey (NAWS), and a national bipartisan Commission on Agricultural Workers (CAW) was created to study the data and recommend to Congress whether to open the door for the RAW program.
The CAW completed its study and reported to Congress on February 17, 1993 that there was an oversupply of farm labor. The new employers sanction measures had failed to deter the influx of illegal aliens and the surplus of labor was condemning agricultural workers to continue to toil in deteriorating wage and worksite environmental conditions. All governmental and non- partisan reports since that time have echoed the same conclusion. The blue-ribbon, national, non-partisan Commission on Immigration Reform, for example, called in 1994 for "enhanced enforcement efforts targeted at farm labor and other contractors who hire unauthorized workers on behalf of agricultural growers and other businesses." According to the executive director of the California Institute for Rural Studies "In terms of constant dollars, there's been a significant decline in wages, we think by over 25 percent, over the last 20 years."(New York Times, March 31, 1997)
THE CYCLE OF POVERTY
An argument is made that foreign agricultural workers are needed because Americans will not do this hard work. That has a ring of truth because most of the seasonal agricultural workers are aliens legally or illegally in the country or former illegal alien agricultural workers who gained legal status in the amnesty adopted as part of the IRCA legislation. Yet, it would be myopic to look at a current snapshot of farm labor today and conclude that current conditions are inevitable.
Agricultural investors make decisions on what crops to plant on the basis of whether they expect to be able to harvest the crop and whether the crop will be remunerative. Naturally the producers benefit from the lowest possible labor costs. It is only natural that foreign workers, who can earn at home only a fraction of what they can earn in the United States will readily take jobs that would be unattractive to American workers. Studies have shown that the real earnings of agricultural workers have dropped over the past decade -- a clear demonstration of a labor surplus, not a shortage.
Over time, as the number of illegal alien agricultural workers has increased, and as wages have decreased, the attractiveness of employment in this sector to poor American workers has decreased. the availability of alternatives, such as welfare assistance, can only be pointed to as one factor contributing to this trend, not the cause of it.
Similarly, if the supply of cheap, illegal foreign labor were cut off, it would not mean the collapse of agricultural producers or skyrocketing costs to the American consumer. First, it should be noted that labor-intensive agricultural crops represent a small share of the overall production of crops. Secondly, studies have documented that the labor costs of production of even those crops that are labor-dependent represent a small share of the retail price. A 1996 study by an Iowa State agricultural economist concluded 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 winter-spring seasons, the cost increase from relying on our native labor force and legal temporary workers would be only about half as much.
FINDINGS OF THE U.S. COMMISSION ON AGRICULTURAL WORKERS (CAW)
According to Dr. Monica Heppel, a professor of anthropology at Mount Vernon College and Research Director for the CAW, writing in the summer 1993 issue of SCOPE, the journal of the Center for Immigration Studies,"The overarching factor within the Commission's research findings was the current oversupply of agricultural labor in the United States." Heppel explained the reasons for the labor surplus despite the expansion of labor-intensive agriculture in the following terms:
"Stagnating or deteriorating wages and working conditions for seasonal farmworkers;
High levels of underemployment;
An increase in the use of farm labor contractors;
A rise in internal labor migration;
Increased settlement of farmworkers and the 'latinization of rural America; and
A strong pattern of cyclical migration whereby workers are employed seasonally in the United states but spend several months of the year in Mexico."
The recommendations of the CAW, wrote Heppel, included a call for the development of a better employment eligibility and identification system, including a fraud-proof work authorization document for all persons legally authorized to work in the United States. The CAW also recommended that the RAW, the foreign worker replenishment program be allowed to lapse without ever having been activated. This, it was assumed at the time sealed the door on the efforts of agricultural producers to leave the door open for large numbers of new foreign agricultural workers without regard for their effect on agricultural workers already in the country.
FAIR'S POSITION
FAIR has supported the recommendations of the CAW and the later Commission on Immigration Reform in their advocacy of an improved system of verifiable worker identification. This is the key missing element to deterring illegal immigration by denying jobs to those who would come and attempt to stay illegally. This position, like the national commissions' recommendations is based on several aspects of the problem.
One is the problem of assuring work opportunities to the over one million agricultural workers who were converted from illegal workers to legal immigrants by the 1986 IRCA amnesty. By making these persons legal residents, Congress also made them eligible for welfare and other public assistance programs. Like refugees, the Congress made the American taxpayer the "sponsor" of these immigrants. If they are unable to find work, and must resort to foodstamps or other assistance, it is the American taxpayer who must cover the costs. It is, therefore, in the public interest that these agricultural workers continue to have work available. Similarly, for reasons of social justice as well as self-interest, the taxpayer should want to see improving wages and working conditions for agricultural workers.
Another reason for supporting tight labor conditions in seasonal agriculture is that by improving wages, there will be less interest in leaving this field of work for jobs in the service sector. In a seriously misguided program, the U.S. Department of Labor (DoL) sponsors job skills programs for agricultural workers to help them qualify for better- paying jobs in the service sector. All that this appears to accomplish is to create increased job opportunities for more illegal alien workers. A portion of these workers end up joining the permanent illegal alien population of the country. The DoL effort makes no sense as long as there is no successful deterrence against illegal alien workers through worksite screening, and the channelling of all temporary foreign agricultural workers into legal channels with safeguards for American labor.
Finally, the current situation, which would be aggravated by a new temporary farmworker system, has not only demographic effects of fueling population growth, but it also contributes to the growing income disparity in the United States between the wealthy and the poor and fuels the growth of the population living in poverty, including sizable numbers of children.

Also do you know how much money these immigrants spend in clothing/food,electronics/cars/houses/investments, DID YOU EVER GO TO SCHOOL ACELAW AND LEARN WHAT INTERNAL CONSUMERS ARE ALL ABOUT?

You think they are here to work the farms, you have no idea what you are talking about, as the pervious article said we have an over supply of farm workers, here is where they are working:
Source: Hispanic Magazine
45 percent: Portion of Hispanic businesses in the service industry.
16 percent in construction.
14 percent in retail trade.
Remainder in agriculture, finance, manufacturing, transportation and wholesaling.
Source: 2002 Colorado Hispanic Business Report
YOU DO NOT SEE CONSTRUCTION ON THE JOBS GROWTH LIST BUT THEY DISPLACE CITIZENS AND DEPRESS THE WAGES.
. . After ten years in the United States, the average amnestied illegal alien had only a 7th grade education and an annual salary of less than $9,000 a year, $500 of which gets sent to his homeland. (Report on the Legalized Alien Population, Immigration and Naturalization Service, M-375, March 1992)

What about the TAXES they pay in all this things that they BUY!

That accounts for nothing compared to the services they use, get a clue,
Illegal Immigration Turning Calif. Into 'Apartheid State,' Expert Warns
By Steve Brown
CNSNews.com Staff Writer
August 20, 2003

(CNSNews.com) - California may evolve into an "apartheid state" unless major changes are made in immigration policy, a panel of immigration experts warned Tuesday.

The problems are fueled primarily by illegal immigration to California, resulting in a growing segment of the population that pays a disproportionately low percentage in taxes; uses a similarly disproportionate amount of welfare services; and increasingly lives in virtually segregated communities while working in more affluent areas of the state, the panelists said.

California State University, Fresno professor Victor Davis Hanson, a member of the panel hosted by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) in Washington, D.C., described some central California cities that are composed entirely of recent Mexican immigrants and their families, many of whom live in "a shadow community" because of their illegal status.

"Where I live, there are towns such as Orange Cove, Mendota or Parlier, Calif., which are 100 percent composed of either people who are the first generation from Mexico and are illegal aliens, or second generation where third- and fourth-generation Mexican citizens have left," said Hanson, author of the recently published book Mexifornia: A State of Becoming.

"These are like test tube cases of what not to do," said Hanson. "You reject American integration and diversity, and you allow apartheid societies of people who basically serve more affluent people in a shadow community without legality."

Hanson predicted the issue of illegal immigration from Mexico will be raised either in the current California recall campaign or in the 2004 presidential election, saying he expects the debate will be "demagogued in a way that's going to be quite infamous before the actual elections come around."

Part of the reason the issue of illegal immigration is such a highly charged political issue is because relatively few Americans have first-hand experience with it, according to San Diego Union-Tribune columnist Joseph Perkins, who was also on the panel.

Another facet of the debate centers on the supply of cheap labor, which favors an "open-border" mindset in some business quarters.

"Most of these folks have not actually seen the consequences of that policy," said Perkins. "The fact is California, the nation's most populous state, has been transformed by immigration, particularly illegal immigration."

According to Perkins, who opposes open-border policies after having supported them as an editorial writer for the Wall Street Journal. "If my friends in New York who continue to advocate open borders were to have 100,000 Chinese immigrants heading into New York harbor year by year and suddenly becoming part of New York State's population... then they might feel differently."

Steve Camarota, director of research for the CIS, dismissed many of the economic theories used to support an open-border policy.

While some argue that Mexican immigration - legal or otherwise - is crucial to the economy, Camarota introduced statistical data showing that Mexican immigrants comprise nearly one-third of California's population but account for approximately 3 percent of the state's economic output.

According to Camarota, California's estimated population of more than 35.5 million people includes some 10 million Mexicans, 70 percent of who are in the state illegally and 65 percent of who have less than a high school education.

"The idea that Mexican immigration is vital to the U.S. economy is simply false," Camarota said.

Next, Camarota noted that Mexican immigrants pay significantly less in taxes compared with native Californians but use disproportionately more welfare benefits than those born in the state.

Camarota's data showed that the average taxes paid by Mexican immigrants in California amount to about $1,535 per year, while native-born Californians pay $5,600 in taxes.

While Mexican immigrants pay one-third the taxes of native Californians on average, they also consume roughly three times more welfare, Camarota said.

The CIS data showed that 41.5 percent of Mexican immigrants used "major welfare programs" like Medicaid and food stamps, while those same welfare programs were used by only 14.2 percent of native Californians.

"There's a very big difference between what Mexican immigrants are supposed to pay in taxes and what natives are supposed to pay," said Camarota. "This fact, coupled with their extremely high use of public services, means that there's a very high cost for cheap labor."

While the panelists illustrated the encroaching problems and their causes, few detailed solutions were offered.

"What should we do? I think most people support immigration, we want immigration, and it always enriches the culture. But we want it in California under legal auspices," said Hanson.

Hanson said it would require "legal, measured immigration." However, he emphasized that "something" must be done to protect the borders.

E-mail a news tip to Steve Brown.

Hispanic Dropout Rate Becoming a National Crisis
The following article is reprinted with permission from WCER Highlights, published by the Wisconsin Center for Education Research, UW-Madison School of Education.
The school dropout rate for Hispanic students has remained a consistent problem over the past 40 years and, as recently as 1993, about 30 percent of the United States' Hispanic population ages 16 to 24 had dropped out of school. This is in comparison to an overall rate of 11 percent, an 8 percent rate for white non-Hispanics, and a 13 percent rate for African-Americans.
Nevertheless, in spite of their improved educational attainment rates over the last 10 years, Hispanics continue to enter school later, leave school earlier, and receive proportionally fewer high school diplomas and college degrees than other Americans. In fact, Hispanics are still among the most undereducated segment of the US population.
This is causing increasing concern among many educators as the Hispanic population grows dramatically, and it will be a disaster for a large percentage of the labor force to lack a high school education. According to Dr. Walter Secada, director of the Hispanic Dropout Project (HDP), "An undereducated and underskilled Hispanic workforce is harmful not only to Hispanics who drop out, but to the American economy and larger non-Hispanic population as well."
The HDP has published a Data Book, which shows the scope of the Hispanic dropout problem, its causes, and its consequences. According to the Data Book, social and economic costs are escalating for many reasons:
the Hispanic population is rapidly growing, in both absolute numbers and as a proportion of US students
fewer dropouts will find employment in future workplaces
upgraded workforce skills are critical for an individual's and the nation's successes in the global economy
people need increasingly more advanced knowledge and skills to participate in this society, to vote intelligently, and to make intelligent consumer decisions
labor force productivity and income must expand to help meet the needs of senior citizens as they continue to make up a larger segment of our population
children of the future will be strongly affected by their parents' income and education levels
The purpose of the HDP is to increase awareness of the nature and scope of Hispanic dropout problem, to produce concrete analyses of the issues and integrate research on intervention, and to recommend federal, state, and local level actions which can be taken to reduce the dropout rate of Hispanic youth.
SO WE WILL ALSO PAY FOR THE DROP OUTS DOWN THE ROAD AS THEY GO ON WELFARE , MEXICO HAS DUMPED THEY POOR ON THE TAXPAYERS OF THIS COUNRTY, PLAN AND SIMPLE, THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES BUT YOU DO NOT WANT TO BELEVE THEM BECAUSE IT MAKES WHAT YOU FOLKS HAVE DONE TO THIS COUNTRY AND ITS CITIZENS LOOK REAL BAD AND IT IS, YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO COME HERE ILLEGALY AND HARM FOLKS THAT ARE JUST AS HARD WORKING AS YOU THINK YOU ALL ARE.

[This message was edited by acelaw on October 21, 2003 at 05:07 PM.]

**lostinmex** · 10-21-2003, 07:56 PM

acelaw, you post the same thing all the time and some of your post contradict what you are trying to say. I am not sure if you are for legal immigration or not. I am not sure if you are with the U.S. or not. since the immigrants are here to stay maybe you should leave. I have a few suggestions.

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