Variations on a Theme: Now Newsweek Tells Us How Awful It Is That Immigration Enforcement Is Working So Well
How well? Newsweek’s story opens up with the customary interview of an illegal immigrant just trying to make ends meet, and self-deporting:
Since the employer sanctions law went into effect, Roberto has been fired from one job because he had no documents. He quit his other job to seek higher-paying day labor, but that never panned out. Now he earns less than the meager $120 a week he made as a construction worker back in Mexico.
That’s the idea. Economic incentives lead to self-deportation. From there, naturally, it’s a reprise of the theme introduced by the LA Times, with the labor shortages and businesses that cater to illegal immigrants shutting down and the climate of fear and repression and scary scary oh noes, and (apparently a matter of exigent political concern to the Left)…expensive produce:
In the Yuma area, where agricultural workers earn from $10 to $19 per hour, farmers couldn’t find enough laborers to harvest their lettuce crop, Sigg says. Other farmers have stopped planting labor-intensive vegetables like lettuce in favor of mechanically harvested alfalfa and wheat, and some farmers are considering selling out altogether, he says. “If the agricultural industry can’t get laborers, the land will be converted to other uses and we’ll put our food production at the mercy of other countries,” Sigg predicts.
Is it really a labor shortage driving this, though, or something else? Wheat prices are through the roof, and UNESCO is putting the blame on increased demand from another, slightly less PC sector:
Rising food prices – one of the world’s fastest-growing crises – are being blamed on China’s rapidly increasing consumption, climate change and the increased use of biofuels, all of which heavily increase demand disproportionately against supply.
“The diversion of agricultural crops to fuel can raise food prices and reduce our ability to alleviate hunger throughout the world,” the report said. Wheat prices have risen by 130 per cent since March 2007 and soy prices by 87 per cent, it added. Last week, the World Bank warned that 100 million more people could be pushed into poverty because food prices had risen by 83 per cent in three years.
No joke. I saw this picture on a story about Pakistan sealing its borders to prevent smuggling and I thought…well, you know what I thought:
Guess what? It’s flour.
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Categories: Employer Sanctions, Open Borders Lobby
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Wah! Looks like a bus ride back to Ol’ Me-hi-co.
COOL.
Nah, Nah, Nah, Nah!
Nah, Nah, Nah, Nah!
Hey, Hey, Hey!
GOODBYE!!!!!!!!!
Not one but two jobs Americans won’t do?
Seems like somebody was living life high on the hog. It’s time to go Roberto. DLTHYOTWO.
Good. At least something is working, maybe.
Heh. I just knew it was going to be arugula, until I read it. But, alas, it was just lettuce.
At some point, it will be cheaper to pay a legal worker to pick crops at minimum wage than it will be to buy the fuel to run a tractor.
Probably sooner than we think.
As Michelle puts on some of her stories at times…
DLTDHYOTWO
Good grief! An illegal alien out of work because some are enforcing US law!! Lettuce is about to become unaffordable!
Smugglers trading in contraband flour! Call out the National Guard…
My bill payments weep for poor Roberto.
If these illegals want me to feel sorry for them they are sol. I hope to see gobs of stories like this in the future. Your country of orgin will welcome you back. The next time you come back to America, do it legally, we will be happy to have you.
L
The apologists in the MSM just refuse to accept the truth about the positive effect of Arizona’s new law. If you enforce the rule of law and hold the employers accountable the illegal invader will leave all by themselves.
Because he can’t find someone to pay him under the table more than 3 bucks an hour, he’s moving back home to be a legal citizen in Mexico..
Stealing/smuggling lumber in Afghanistan/Pakistan will get you killed.
As for the self deportation aspect of this story, well, good. We don’t need to bus them all out.
Open borders zealots are exceptional at moving the goalposts, huh?
I’d like to say that the UN gets it. They really, really get it! Poverty is deadly! Wealthy is healthy! Taxation kills!
Smart money says the UN will draw a conclusion that’s 180 out from the truth.
for the pic..
I have a kilo of the best Nebraska white powder you have ever seen.. unbleached.. all purpose.. the first ounce is free.. gotta charge you for the rest..
When will Newsweek interview the victim or family of crime by illegal aliens? Or an American worker whose wages are lower because of the influx of illegal aliens in the workforce?
In Oklahoma, some of strongest opposition to our anti-illegal legislation, both vocally and legally, has been from the chamber of commerce at the state and local levels. Oh, by the way, if the news accounts from the Tulsa area are correct, the legislation is working very, very well
Lettuce pray…
You crack me up.
AlohaGuy,
Methinks I like it.
I guess that with stricter enforcement against illegals, the government might be forced to rationalize the rules and procedures for admitting legal immigrants, to the benefit of us all.
Thanks PB. I try.
Looks like I can lower the wages I pay to my day laborer who works on the yard.
Instead of $9/hr I can now pay about $5!
#15 Robert
In Oklahoma City, when listening to crime reports, most of them seem to come with a hispanic sounding name. So, I say GOOD RIDDANCE!
Maybe this will free up some of those $50/hour lettuce picking jobs Juan McCain was talking about.
Has anyone seen “Tommy” lately?
or did Harry(turd burper)Reid lose his imaginary friend?….
the mystery continues…..
Well, if they are looking for laborers, come to TX. I read a story this weekend that
says we are going to be in big trouble in the near future because of all of the
illegals that are coming in from Mexico and staying in TX and the ones coming in
from AZ and OK. We will not have enough jobs for them and they will (gasp! as if they haven’t, already) turn to crime! Unfortunately, the farmers don’t keep these people on a string and use them year after year. No…what they do is encourage new
ones to come in for each season, thus, the root of the problem. All I get from our
illustrious gov is a form letter thanking me for my concern. No vote from me in next
election when he tries to run for a 3rd term.
Tre #23:
Tres uncool.
This isn’t a “hispanic sounding names=criminals” kind of place.
If you can’t see why that’s over the line, kindly refrain from posting on the subject until you figure it out.
LOL great one Alohaguy. I saw a story yesterday about the little day labors not getting any work here is So. Cal. They are being forced to go back to Mexico. My hanky is full of tears for them. HA! Take your anchor babies with you. And tell the people you see heading here to turn around and go back too. Save all of us time.
Ten to nineteen dollars an hour is 194% – 370% of minimum wage (jobs Americans are doing). The new brave talk of illegals: things are better in Mexico. So go home to two dollars a day wages verses $3 an hour in the U.S., plus food stamps, plus housing subsidies, plus free medical, plus up to 100 felonies without prosecution, and finally a free flight back to Mexico.
Best case is this clear success of the AZ law leads to similar measures in TX, OK, and elsewhere …
/the states — doing the enforcement job the feds have chosen not to do!
Hey, psst… over here…
I got the finest grade white-Columbian flour money can buy!
Also read that the so called protected jobs in construction, etc are now being
done by illegals. Well, duh….that’s been happening for some time now.
When I need extra help for yard work, I hire some firefighters that do it on their
days off and retired firefighters that do this work to augment their retirement
pay. They are legal, and it helps someone who helps the community.
From your lips to our legislators ears, Buckaroo.
With the prices of arugula and flour going through the roof, apparently there is a pretty wide ranging black market for food. Sad… Thanks Washington! As far as the self-deporting Mexican worker, sorry man, them’s the breaks as my dad used to say.
I bought a bird feeder. I hung it on my back porch and filled it with seed.. Within a week we had hundreds of birds taking advantage of the continuous flow of free and easily accessible food.
But then the birds started building nests in the boards of the patio, above the table, and next to the barbecue.
Then came the poop. It was everywhere: on the patio tile, the chairs, the table…everywhere.
Then some of the birds turned mean. They would dive bomb me and try to peck me even though I had fed them out of my own pocket. And others birds were boisterous and loud: They sat on the feeder and squawked and screamed at all hours of the day and night and demanded that I fill it when it got low on food. After a while, I couldn’t even sit on my own back porch anymore.
I took down the bird feeder and in three days the birds were gone. I cleaned up their mess and took down the many nests they had built all over the patio. Soon, the back yard was like it used to be…quite, serene and no one demanding their rights to a free meal.
Now lets see…our government gives out free food, subsidized housing, free medical care, free education and allows anyone born here to be a automatic citizen.
Then the illegals came by the tens of thousands. Suddenly our taxes went up to pay for free services. Small apartments are housing 5 families. You have to wait 6 hours to be seen by an emergency room doctor. Your child’s 2nd grade class is behind other schools because over half the class doesn’t speak English. Corn Flakes now come in a bilingual box. I have to press “one” to hear my bank talk to me in English, and people waving flags other than “Old Glory” are squawking and screaming in the streets, demanding more rights and free liberties.
Maybe it’s time for the government to take down the bird feeder.
Adios Roberto!!
What will happen, is, the dimms will decide to put all of the out of work illegals,
be they hispanic, northern european, african, etc on unemployment or welfare
because they can’t get work here. I do know mexico doesn’t want them back.
They are moaning that they’re coming back without money, homes, work…well,
hey…that’s how they all came here!
Same to ya C-Wya #26.
So he makes 120 per week that’s pretty good in mexico what’s he crying about!
Nice bird feeder analogy, metaphor, allegory?
whichever it was.. good job..
I’d like to point out that Michelle’s quotation from UNESCO is a fabrication, and her words are lies.
Al Gore clearly wouldn’t have called for more Biofuels if they would cause food prices to rise. I mean, seriously, how could the man that invented the internet, lived Love Story, won a Nobel Prize and then won an Oscar miss something as obvious as Freshman “Guns and Butter” economics?
Clearly, he can’t. Thus, applying liberal-logic, Michelle and UNESCO should be impeached.
Michelle, do YOU have an Oscar? UNESCO, to YOU have a Nobel Prize? Do either of you ever say “Love means never having to say ‘honey, turn up the air conditioning – I’m burning up’ to each other?
No?
I didn’t think so.
So stop talking about things like science, immigration, and other subjects that you need an Oscar to discuss.
Sheesh…
Just read that Pilgrim’s Pride plants in Ar, TX and TN were raided because of “alleged” illegal aliens working there with papers that are the result of identity
theft and other things related to illegally hiring illegals.
One of the things that I know Tyson does, is hire illegals, give them a TB test when
they are hired and then never test them again. No problem, apparently, if they are
incubating TB and thus it doesn’t show on the test, and becomes active later or
they live with people who have active TB. Don’t know if this is also a practice of
Pilgrim’s Pride. I buy my chicken locally, thank you.
Well the price of wheat doesn’t bother me much since I have celiac & can’t eat it anyway. Now the price of corn… that’s another matter.
And why not put all those able-bodied welfare people to work, $10-19 an hour doesn’t sound too bad to me!
I’ll tell you where, signing up illegals to vote for liberals who’ll let the illegals in here by the truck load to work for $3.00 an hour instead of union wages of $23.00 an hour which puts some American kid on the street. Thanks unions. For nothing.
[ and before you take a shot - I helped form a union, I was Secretary-Treasurer for years and then President of the local ]
The same argument was made about why they shouldn’t end slavery.
I wonder how many “undocumented Americans” are using my SSN?
Hmmmmm…
Uh, bit_boy, See-Dubya was the one that posted the original article and is monitoring the thread.
We in AZ and those in OK can personally attest to the success of removing the job and public support magnets from the illegals and its effect on our communities …
As we all like to say …
DLTDHYOTWO …
or for those that haven’t figured out English yet …
No deje la puerta en usted en la parte posterior en la salida
Adios
PB … I know mine is being used … the IRS reminds me every year when they audit me for supposedly not reporting all my income …
AJ has to deal with identity theft as well …
I suspect there are others here that have had experience in that arena as well …
And, that was just one of such poultry processing plants in TN that is apparently doing that, Rose. There is another one in East TN that is alleged to be doing the same thing.
There are employers in Sevier County, TN that help illegal immigrants get fake SSN’s. They are pretty easy to spot, since they all seem to start with “100″ on them from there.
I wish someone would bust that employer and charge them on each count.
I remember talking to one of the DC liberals (and yes he was a Republican). He said that farmers needed the cheap labor from Mexico. I said, then how come the people getting the benefit are not the ones paying. It seems that the citizens of the state and local communities have to put the kids through school and pay for the medical care so the farmer can get his cheap labor. Of course as we know if these local citizens complain they are racists and bigots and mean-spirited.
I think Mc Cain needs to see that it is possible for Illegals to return home, without a fleet of busses sending them there. If they snuck in, they can walk out.
Where has dingy Harry Reid been lately. Keep hearing about Pelosi who seems to be
single handedly (?) trying to bring back a GOP majority in DC. Everything she does
lately seems to be a major SNAFU.
And I’m STILL waiting to get offered $50 an hour to pick arugula.
Wait… didn’t I just read some place that California was contemplating releasing thousands of “non violent” convicts to save money…
Hmmmmmm, well maybe they could… naaaa the libs would never go for it.
Oh, and by the way pleased to meet you RobM… let’s talk manners later.
malkinFan. Nice analogy with the bird feeder.
also these birds get to go back to there old nests and improve conditions there. Eventually they can work on taming the other birds, and producing their own feed.
I would be enraged if I was in your shoes. I’d be asking the IRS what they were doing to help me fix the problem.
Funny how actual citizens who engage in identity theft are treated as felons while illegals who do the same are treated as working class heroes who are “just trying to survive”.
$19.00 per hour to pick lettuce???
I wasn’t making that when I graduated college!!!
Cry me river, Roberto…
Oh wait that was sarcasm right… my bad.
Well this means that Americans who have played by the rules can now compete for jobs that pay better…that is so evil to the libs and the cheap labor lovers, huh?
sorry…
I meant cry me A river….
duh….
and I even previewed the post…
double duh….
I know of a family that used to go to Mexico and solicit illegals to come here to
work in their shop. (If you can be at such and such place at such and such date,
someone will pick you up). Then, they created fake ssn for them and taught them how to use the system for all sorts of benefits. Of course, when we objected, we were racists and bigots and did not practice what Jesus taught (where, in the Bible, does Jesus say to hire illegals?). Just as enough of us got
tired of the practice, he died and his shop sold. The new owners hired family and
teens from the local high school and taught them the business through a school
program.
As I have said before, my stepfather, used braceros when we lived on the border, and really liked the program. I don’t know why we could not reinstate
this guest worker program, instead of the “we don’t need no stinkin’ green cards!” program.
Keep the pressure (against illegal immigration) up on pols no matter what insipid names they call you!
That’s more than twice the amount our local Police Department pays rookie officers.
Dude! Can you score me some yeast with that too? I am really jonesing for a loaf of home baked bread!
TXRose – Gov Good Hair has to go – I can’t believe people fell for his “promises” last time.
Malkin_fan – excellent!
Okie here! Our very strict immigration laws have worked quite nicely. Our illegals are now Arkansas’ illegals. Oh well…
PS – our crime rate has tanked. May not be what some want to hear, but it’s a fact.
Hey Roberto, on your way BACK across the border, pick up up all that crap you and the others left that the eco-terrorists fail to make an issue of every day!!!
I can still remember going to school with the children of migrant workers. Not a
one was Mexican. These were the people that traveled the country following the
crops. It wasn’t a life I would have chosen but I remember the children as being
healthy and happy. Sometimes they were way older than we were, because they
were behind in their studies but I remember my stepfather talking about the
money some of the families made because they all worked and pooled their money. Believe me, he couldn’t believe how much land some of these people were able to buy, if they could be believed, to retire on. There are a lot of homeless people that just might want to do these jobs. There are people who
want to work, regardless of what the work is, just so it is work.
Sure… it’s all fun and games until we end up paying 5 cents more for a do-nut.
But, how can this be? Haven’t they been telling us for years that enforcement simply won’t work?
TexasKaren…I didn’t fall for his promises…I just could not bring myself to vote for Sanchez. Hard to believe that there was someone running that was
worse than Perry. (Not because he is Hispanic, but because he made HRC
seem like a truth telling machine!)
At least they weren’t Dunkin Donuts.
Could it be that he thought of crime when he heard the names because he was listening to the CRIME REPORT? If they sounded Hispanic we can’t say they sounded Hispanic? Why not?
Sailor Dave–
They should have busted them for egregious hyphenation, too.
My father was a migrant worker. He picked potatoes in North Dakota. He had a hard life. I think no buddy faults the worker who is here legally.
The typical liberal result, they create it from meddling, banning and mandating.
Got poverty? Got failure? Got unintended catastrophic consequences? No? Fear not the typical liberals are here.
Given the industry involved, we’re all surprised that Houston PD didn’t engage in an armed stand-off with ICE.
I picked peanuts and potatoes for my uncle, one summer, Mister P. That’s is hard,
thankless work, but I still felt great when he handed me my pay. Now, the
strawberries were another story…never been so sick in my life…one for the pail,
two for the mouth. And the blackberries!!!! My aunt made me wear her homemade
chigger and tick repellent when we went to pick blackberries and dewberries! It
consisted of powdered sulfur and lard. I had no friends all of my 13th summer
because that stuff doesn’t wash off!!!! It has to wear off!!! I do know how to work
hard because my Mother was widowed at 32 with 6 children and we had to Work
to make it. Can’t complain. Have a great work ethic as a result.
I get really tired of this, OH NO, lettuce and chicken or whatever is going to cost more. Something like 65-70% of Americans are overweight or obese. We could easily offset any cost increase by eating less, which would also reduce healthcare cost as the population becomes a lot more healthy.
When the price increase subject comes up related to illegal immigration is there some kind of assumption that giving away the country to millions of mostly non-assimulating people should be OK if we get cheaper food? What an insult.
Excellent point Bob
This is great news for my kids. They HATE salad night!
Hey Bitter Boy, what does your name sound like??
Our last Attorney General was named Gonzalez.
The way I figure it Bob, is that when the illegals quit overtaxing our schools, health
care network, etc. then, we can afford to pay higher prices for food, etc.
This, “Oh no, higher prices!” is a liberal scare tactic ( in my opinion).
On April 16th, 2008 at 2:23 pm, see-dubya said:
Tre #23:
Tres uncool.
This isn’t a “hispanic sounding names=criminals” kind of place.
If you can’t see why that’s over the line, kindly refrain from posting on the subject until you figure it out.
See-dubya, I didn’t SAY “hispanic names=criminals”. I said “more crime reports have a hispanic name associated with them”. I KNOW not all hispanics are criminals. I dated hispanic women back when I was single.
What I meant was, maybe with Oklahoma’s new law, many of those type will leave.
In Tulsa, one of my best friends had to move out of her apartment complex because hispanics began to move in, and the crime rate there went through the roof right after. In fact, the dead body of a young woman was found behind her complex.
So, if you still think I’m uncool, well, I’m at the age now where that doesn’t matter to me much.
I hear what you are saying Tre because I live in Tulsa.
If the US population doubles again and again due to illegal and chamberpot immigration, we’ll have shortages of farmland to add to the oil and water woes we already have, and this is not far off in the future.
TXRose my wife’s family made ends meet by most of the women taking the kids and going over the Cascades to pick berries in fields of the Willamette Valley or Oregon. They would put everyone to work for pay and for a small portion of the crop they would take home to can. Most of the family back home gets together every summer to spend a couple of weekends canning fruits and vegetables and distributing them to everyone. We still get a few precious jars of green beans, apple butter, and other preserves when we travel back home to visit. That’s why my wife has an incredible work ethic too!
Tre, thanks for clarifying, but I think we’re still at cross purposes here: when you say the crime rate went up because hispanics moved in, you’re no longer debating illegal immigration, you’re making an assertion about race. Even though I understand you’re not saying all Hispanics are criminals, you’re still saying they’re criminals.
The Left always tries to make this a white v. brown issue. I say it’s not; it’s about immigration status. I don’t care if illegal immigrants are Polish, Irish, Guatemalan, Fijian, or Syrian–we have security problems in this country (including crime) because of illegal immigration and lax border enforcement.
Not because of “hispanics”.
The MSM and politicians specifically said that these were jobs Americans won’t do. Now you expect me to believe that Americans will pick vegetables?
All of you Americans with memories of agricultural work must be delusional.
Call me delusional. I do remember Legal Produce Workers, both personally and
from the stories my Mother and Stepfather told. He worked building and running
produce sheds across the Southwest. He died just after we left the Rio Grande
Valley, so, I don’t know much about the industry after that.
Now unemployment should drop as well as the number below 150% of the proverty line. Can someone tell me what code is violated and what is the punishment for using a false SSN? Seems like every illigal that has been empolyed has not only entered the country illegally but has also committed fraud by illegally wusing an invalid SSN.
I know, I was being sarcastic. I thought it was obvious, but I’ll spell it out next time.
I am so sick of reading these stories. Do they serve cheese with their whine? What national news source will run a story about the plight of the American people who are being taxed to pay for people who have illegally entered and stay in this country. How about the American citizens missing organ donations because the illegal got it instead?
Roberto and his fellow illegals should go home, get in line and come here legally, paying taxes, their own health care, etc.
Previously, there was a number issued to illegals and it is with this number that
they could get benefits and buy houses. This was a legal number and I believe it
was started with the letter p. If someone knows more about this number, please
clarify for us. Then, that little practice was terminated and now they are finding
all of these illegal ssn’s. I am so sorry that some of us are victims of identity theft
because I have two friends that have been through it and it ruined one’s marriage
and the other was almost suicidal before it was cleared up. I don’t understand
why this practice isn’t prosecuted more forcefully. We have some better laws
about this in TX because one of our legislators went through it and she decided
that it should be more of a crime. I am lucky….there is only one of me (name)
in the world and if someone strange to me could spell it, I would be very
surprised.
That’s what I thought, PBoilermaker. I didn’t take you seriously on that one.
Sometimes I do wonder if I am delusional because I was relatively young at
the time.
#77 – don’t really care that many in the country are what some would deem overweight. The fact is, it should be their choice if they can pay for the food. Health care costs going up because of it? Not if people were responsible for getting their own health care rather than expecting it all for “free”. Could we offset the costs? Possibly, but without socialism of some sort? Highly unlikely.
And boo-hoo to the person who has to go back to their home country because they can’t get a decent wage living here illegally. Don’t care where you’re from, or what you’re doing here, if you didn’t come here legally, please leave and stay away until you can come here legally. And at that time I will welcome you with open arms.
see-dubya #86, I couldn’t agree more. It always amazes me when I’m called racist because I want LEGAL immigration. How is that racist? I don’t want anyone just breaking in my house uninvited; same thing with our country.
There are machines that can pick raspberries. RASPBERRIES! Don’t tell me technology cannot deal with the “labor shortage”. Michelle is right. Further aggravating the world grain shortage is dummass world governments pushing biofuels. We don’t need jihadi enemies, we have our own government working to kill us off.
I fondly (fondly now that it’s long past)remember my summers in jr and sr high school picking tomatoes and corn and the occasional hay hauling when it was cutting time. Hard work, but it was available work and I made enough that I didn’t need to work a part time job during the school years. Too bad it was cheaper for the local farmers (the few that still existed in that area) to pay illegals when my children were looking for summer jobs. An experience worth having.
#96 I just saw something that now they have machines pick oranges. The reason is because of the worker shortage. So see technology will also, get illegals out of the country. I love technology!
One ofthe biggest arguments for amnesty is that we can’t possibly deport all those millions of illegals. As you can see, all you have to do is enforce the laws, and they all leave on their own. If they want to cross the border to “pick lettuce”, they could be welcome…understanding that they leave when it’s done, or face a very uncomfortable life here. Besides, technology will rise to the challenge. Capitalism does that, along with a free market unobstructed by government meddling for votes.