As Sophia used to say on Golden Girls, "picture it," a pallet plant in the south-eastern part of Chicago, the company, U.S.A. Pallets has more then 100 employees, producing more then a thousand pallets every day. The workers, in a blur of activity, each with his own specific duty, work 12 hour shifts to break down old pallets, save whatever they can, and then pushing the left-overs down a production line to the next station, where re-construction begins.
In another shop on the west side of Chicago, workers cut steel shapes out of 8'x16' sheets of 1" steel. There are more then 150 workers on 2 shifts 5 days a week. Here the tempo is a bit slower because the steel sheets need to be eased into place on the "rack table" and a computer needs to be programed to the shape size. A laser then cuts the shapes and workers load them into crates for shipping.
A plastics company north of Philadelphia manufactures forks, knives, spoons and cups, shipping them all over the United States. They have been in business for more then 40 years and today are doing better then ever before. The company employees more then 100 men and 50 women on two shifts during their five day work week
A small village in northern Wisconsin, has a recycling company that recycles tires into all sorts of rubber bi-products that are shipped throughout the Mid-West, dipped in vats of specifically coded paint, bagged into 500 pound bags and transported all over the country to be used in playgrounds, along major thoroughfare's and in landscaping. Although the company employs less then 30 people, it non the less is an important part of the community.
What do each of these businesses have in common, 9 out of every 10 employees are immigrant Mexicans. Of that 90% figure, at least 6 in 10 are illegal. They speak little or no English and are paid sub-standard wages, often in cash, have no benefits of any type, even Workers Compensation for injury on the job.
The top pay that I could find was with the steel shape makers and that was $10 an hour. The worst, $5 an hour at the pallet company. In fact the pallet company was raided, and the entire workforce was deported back to Mexico and the owners were fined $10,000. It didn't matter though, a month later the facility was up and running with another full crew of workers, all different and I'm sure still at $5 an hour.
I hear every few weeks, here in Wisconsin that "these unskilled hard working immigrants are necessary for all sorts of business to continue. From farming, to manufacturing, to lawn care to the service industry, these workers fill jobs that Americans are unwilling to do. Must be that the work, washing dishes, picking fruit, milking cows, or cutting grass is below the standard of what Americans Joe Blow will do.
Business talks about these foreign people, not only Mexicans, but other nations as well, with almost a humbled tone, citing how hard they work, what a great job they do and how their labor helps to keep prices competitive not only in America, but the world as well. I guess so, the wages alone make them competitive.
Immigration to the United States has been a major source of population growth and cultural change throughout much of the history of the country. The economy, social, political, ethnicity, economic benefits and crime have all been effected by immigration. During the latter half of the twentieth century, the United States accepted more legal immigrants as permeate residence then all other nations in the world combined. I have learned from much research that U.S. business has never done anything out of the goodness of their hearts and treating these cheap immigrant workers is no different.
Without exception, each spike in immigration to the United States coincided with a major expansion requiring large amounts of cheap manual labor that could be manipulated through an uneducated foreign speaking work force.
Over half of the immigration during the 17th. and 18th. centuries arrived as indentured servants, were not paid wages, owing their "owner" for passage and were usually laborers or servants. Their food, lodging and other "benefits" were provided for during their 3 to 7 year period of work to pay off their debt. There was less then 1 million of these immigrants during this period of time.
Between the 1830's to around 1914 more then 30 million Europeans, some actually scouted, or recruited to do specific work in the coal fields or the iron ore ranges, entered the country. According to immigration records, the peak year of European immigration was 1907, when more then 1 million entered the country. By 1910 there were more then 13 million legal immigrants living and working in the United States.
Many of these people during this time were employed in the mining industry, making up almost exclusively the work force in these underground operations. With very little exception, management positions in the mining industry were made up of English speaking Americans or immigrated English people that could speak English.
From the early 1850's through the middle of the 1870's there was an influx of Asian peoples to fill those jobs created for railroad companies and the spread of the rail system throughout the western part of the country. When their use was over, they were usually cut loose to fend for themselves, suffering horrific treatment including death.
Today there is defiantly a criminal element connected with many of the groups that have entered the United States over the past 15 or 20 years. The culture of the United States is being effected, illegals are costing tax dollars for medical care as well as the educational process. In addition there is no question that the criminal element has skyrocketed in certain areas of America, costing law enforcement time, effort, tax dollars and in some instances, death.
We beef up border patrol, put fences up and install all types of motion detectors. We fight the drug trafficking between the United States and Mexico, we fight human trafficking as well as undocumented workers, all to no avail and little success.
The header of this blog proclaimed that the immigration controversy wasn't really controversial, the country has all the laws and statutes in place to control any foreign immigration problem that might come up. What we as a nation don't do is enforce the laws and statutes that we have on the books to stem whatever tide might arise.
I take a different view of combating this problem that is getting bigger and more costly by the year, and it's easy, non political and has not even one talking point. The simplicity of my cure even mystifies me and that's hard to do, after all, I'm simple.
A. Make our borders secure, fences do not work, they were all erected to be breached. We are spending billions in foreign wars, bring the troops home to secure the borders.
B. Round up as many illegals as possible, no reputable papers, off you go to the country of your origin, illegals would now be essentially trapped in America by secure borders. The round-up would cost billions, but the cost in lost taxes, services offered and crime would be cut, plus there would be money left over from the wars we are no longer fighting.
C. Those employers that use illegals are severely punished, something like a year in prison for each illegal employee. He would also lose his business for his illegal activity and a regional board would assume control of the business and would sell it to the highest bidder.
D. If you have lived and worked in the United States but are here illegally, you don't have the right to be here, what part of the word ILLEGAL don't you understand? You have no rights and you have no vested interest here, other then to make money and send it home to your family.
These are harsh rules, they make no exceptions, if your here and you shouldn't be, you will be sent packing. There is a reason that more then 12 million Mexican people are here in the United States, there homeland is a joke, jobs are scarce and your government has little interest in developing jobs for you to take advantage of.
Mexico is a third world country, corrupt and ruled by ruthless drug lords that traffic in killer drugs as well as human flash. NAFTA takes advantage of the Mexican people as it does the American worker, possibly the worst trade agreement ever written.
I know that the vast majority of illegal Mexicans are here to better their lot in life and that of their families. But the United States needs to clean up it's act, we no longer can afford to "front" the worlds poor. The United States needs to, step by step right the direction of where we are going and today needs to be the first day, before it's to late.
Without exception, each spike in immigration to the United States coincided with a major expansion requiring large amounts of cheap manual labor that could be manipulated through an uneducated foreign speaking work force.
Over half of the immigration during the 17th. and 18th. centuries arrived as indentured servants, were not paid wages, owing their "owner" for passage and were usually laborers or servants. Their food, lodging and other "benefits" were provided for during their 3 to 7 year period of work to pay off their debt. There was less then 1 million of these immigrants during this period of time.
Between the 1830's to around 1914 more then 30 million Europeans, some actually scouted, or recruited to do specific work in the coal fields or the iron ore ranges, entered the country. According to immigration records, the peak year of European immigration was 1907, when more then 1 million entered the country. By 1910 there were more then 13 million legal immigrants living and working in the United States.
Many of these people during this time were employed in the mining industry, making up almost exclusively the work force in these underground operations. With very little exception, management positions in the mining industry were made up of English speaking Americans or immigrated English people that could speak English.
From the early 1850's through the middle of the 1870's there was an influx of Asian peoples to fill those jobs created for railroad companies and the spread of the rail system throughout the western part of the country. When their use was over, they were usually cut loose to fend for themselves, suffering horrific treatment including death.
Today there is defiantly a criminal element connected with many of the groups that have entered the United States over the past 15 or 20 years. The culture of the United States is being effected, illegals are costing tax dollars for medical care as well as the educational process. In addition there is no question that the criminal element has skyrocketed in certain areas of America, costing law enforcement time, effort, tax dollars and in some instances, death.
We beef up border patrol, put fences up and install all types of motion detectors. We fight the drug trafficking between the United States and Mexico, we fight human trafficking as well as undocumented workers, all to no avail and little success.
The header of this blog proclaimed that the immigration controversy wasn't really controversial, the country has all the laws and statutes in place to control any foreign immigration problem that might come up. What we as a nation don't do is enforce the laws and statutes that we have on the books to stem whatever tide might arise.
I take a different view of combating this problem that is getting bigger and more costly by the year, and it's easy, non political and has not even one talking point. The simplicity of my cure even mystifies me and that's hard to do, after all, I'm simple.
A. Make our borders secure, fences do not work, they were all erected to be breached. We are spending billions in foreign wars, bring the troops home to secure the borders.
B. Round up as many illegals as possible, no reputable papers, off you go to the country of your origin, illegals would now be essentially trapped in America by secure borders. The round-up would cost billions, but the cost in lost taxes, services offered and crime would be cut, plus there would be money left over from the wars we are no longer fighting.
C. Those employers that use illegals are severely punished, something like a year in prison for each illegal employee. He would also lose his business for his illegal activity and a regional board would assume control of the business and would sell it to the highest bidder.
D. If you have lived and worked in the United States but are here illegally, you don't have the right to be here, what part of the word ILLEGAL don't you understand? You have no rights and you have no vested interest here, other then to make money and send it home to your family.
These are harsh rules, they make no exceptions, if your here and you shouldn't be, you will be sent packing. There is a reason that more then 12 million Mexican people are here in the United States, there homeland is a joke, jobs are scarce and your government has little interest in developing jobs for you to take advantage of.
Mexico is a third world country, corrupt and ruled by ruthless drug lords that traffic in killer drugs as well as human flash. NAFTA takes advantage of the Mexican people as it does the American worker, possibly the worst trade agreement ever written.
I know that the vast majority of illegal Mexicans are here to better their lot in life and that of their families. But the United States needs to clean up it's act, we no longer can afford to "front" the worlds poor. The United States needs to, step by step right the direction of where we are going and today needs to be the first day, before it's to late.
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