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  1. #1
    Senior Member 6 Million Dollar Man's Avatar
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    Crackdown on illegal immigration won't hurt ag economy

    Crackdown on illegal immigration won't hurt ag economy

    Sen. Mike Regan3:50 p.m. ET June 18, 2017

    (Photo: PA Senate)


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    In the June 10th edition of the Wall Street Journal, an opinion piece entitled “Fiestas and Apple Orchards: Small-Town Life Before Trump” offers a romanticized view of illegal immigration in Pennsylvania.
    The author, Dickinson College professor Crispin Sartwell, paints an idyllic image of the “vibrant, intersectional culture” of York Springs, PA, where the streets are purportedly lined with “Mexican food trucks and children playing fútbol” and a bona-fide real estate revival is well underway thanks to “townspeople [fixing] up old houses.”

    That is, until Donald Trump was elected President.

    According to the author, “stringent enforcement of immigration law” by the Trump administration has precipitated the destruction of a “rich, new rural culture” and has sent York Springs “spiral[ing] into a local depression that is personal, cultural and economic.” He cites only 15 documented cases of immigration enforcement in the area but assures readers there have been “many more.”

    Central to his narrative is the fact that Adams County is a national leader in apple production, and that York Springs’ 70 percent Hispanic population plays an essential role in the growth and harvest of Galas and Granny Smiths.

    The thesis of Mr. Sartwell’s narrative, of course, is that the lawful detainment of unlawful migrant workers will devastate the local economy, to the detriment of all residents, legal and illegal. Sartwell goes on to explain how the devastation transcends economics:

    “This is separating families, and people are living in fear,” he writes. “Children aren’t playing out in the yard any longer. Parents are afraid to leave their homes…the food truck is gone, and it’s been a while since I heard Mexican pop music.”

    Unsurprisingly, the narrative propagated by Mr. Sartwell aligns closely with the left-wing orthodoxy on this topic. It is rooted in the common misconception that American agriculture cannot function without illegal immigrant labor and that the concerted enforcement of federal immigration law will result in the collapse of the farming industry altogether.

    According to the Pew Research Center, the U.S. civilian workforce includes 8 million unauthorized immigrants, but only 4 percent of that population is employed in agricultural jobs like farming, fishing, and forestry.



    While illegal immigrants do comprise a larger share of the agricultural labor force compared to other industries, the vast majority of the American farming workforce is composed of legal workers, foreign and native-born.

    This fact alone calls into question Mr. Sartwell’s assertion that the removal of unauthorized immigrant labor (not to be confused with legal immigrant labor) will have an adverse impact on the domestic farming economy.

    It also goes far in discrediting the leftist cliché that illegal immigrants are needed to perform the dirty, blue collar jobs American citizens are allegedly “unwilling” to do.

    Sure, labor-intensive fruit-and-vegetable farming does attract illegal immigrant workers, but those commodities constitute a relatively small part of the overall U.S. farm economy. Bigger crops – wheat, cotton, and corn, for example— account for a far greater share of total agricultural output. The production of these major crops is largely automated and can be performed with minimal human inputs.

    Bottom line: The modern agriculture economy is diverse and dynamic. Most farmhands are working legally and agribusiness in general is becoming less reliant on manual labor. The enforcement of federal immigration law will never stop Americans from engaging in one of the oldest forms of organized economic activity known to the human race.

    Mr. Sartwell, and others who share his worldview, use scary rhetoric about vanishing children and food trucks to obfuscate economic reality and perpetuate the wink-and-nod immigration policies of the Barack Obama administration. In doing so, they defend a broken system that has bankrupted taxpayers and endangered American communities.

    Laissez-faire immigration enforcement has resulted in dramatic population growth, not only in our cities but in rural pockets of America like York Springs. Costs in public education, health care, social welfare programs, and the criminal justice system – all borne by American taxpayers – have increased correspondingly.

    The American opioid epidemic, which claims the lives of 10 Pennsylvanians each day, has been fueled in part by the unmitigated trafficking of heroin across the porous southern border.
    Sartwell observes in his column that the migrant labor community of York Springs has been quick to adopt “rural American values…which are instinctively traditional and oriented toward family and hard work.”
    Before authoring opinion pieces that decry the enforcement of federal immigration law, he should be reminded that an abiding respect for the rule of law is another value rural Americans hold dear.
    Illegal immigration is not a victimless crime.

    Sen. Mike Regan, a Republican serving parts of Cumberland and York counties, is a member of the PA Senate Agriculture & Rural Affairs Committee and previously served as U.S. Marshal in the Middle District of Pennsylvania.

    http://www.publicopiniononline.com/s...omy/407179001/


  2. #2
    Senior Member 6 Million Dollar Man's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by 6 Million Dollar Man View Post


    According to the Pew Research Center, the U.S. civilian workforce includes 8 million unauthorized immigrants, but only 4 percent of that population is employed in agricultural jobs like farming, fishing, and forestry.
    Which means that the other 96 percent are taking jobs that Americans WANT!!!!! AND NEED TO SUPPORT THEMSELVES AND THEIR FAMILIES!!!!!!


    Quote Originally Posted by 6 Million Dollar Man View Post
    It also goes far in discrediting the leftist cliché that illegal immigrants are needed to perform the dirty, blue collar jobs American citizens are allegedly “unwilling” to do.
    Yup, these are the jobs that we need and WANT to support ourselves. Not everyone has a white collar job. A vast amount of Americans, believe it or not, do blue collar work. These are the same jobs that illegals are stealing and lowering the wages on.

    Quote Originally Posted by 6 Million Dollar Man View Post
    Mr. Sartwell, and others who share his worldview, use scary rhetoric about vanishing children and food trucks to obfuscate economic reality and perpetuate the wink-and-nod immigration policies of the Barack Obama administration. In doing so, they defend a broken system that has bankrupted taxpayers and endangered American communities.
    Exactly! And let's not forget that have devastated his fellow African American's communities.

    Quote Originally Posted by 6 Million Dollar Man View Post
    Laissez-faire immigration enforcement has resulted in dramatic population growth, not only in our cities but in rural pockets of America like York Springs. Costs in public education, health care, social welfare programs, and the criminal justice system – all borne by American taxpayers – have increased correspondingly.
    Haven't I been saying this all along?

    Quote Originally Posted by 6 Million Dollar Man View Post
    The American opioid epidemic, which claims the lives of 10 Pennsylvanians each day, has been fueled in part by the unmitigated trafficking of heroin across the porous southern border.
    Sartwell observes in his column that the migrant labor community of York Springs has been quick to adopt “rural American values…which are instinctively traditional and oriented toward family and hard work.”
    Before authoring opinion pieces that decry the enforcement of federal immigration law, he should be reminded that an abiding respect for the rule of law is another value rural Americans hold dear.
    Illegal immigration is not a victimless crime.
    Yes


  3. #3
    Senior Member 6 Million Dollar Man's Avatar
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    Oh, and apparently, according to the article, that 4% are also jobs that Americans want and are willing to do. Enough of the hogwash. These pro-illegal arguments don't hold water anymore, after being put under a microscope and dissected to learn the truth.

  4. #4
    Senior Member Judy's Avatar
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    That Republican Ron Johnson from Wisconsin who has introduced a terrible and stupid bill to allow states to import immigrants to steal jobs from Americans says in his state of Wisconsin there is a shortage of manufacturing and dairy workers. Really?! Then why don't you import some unemployed people from .... Michigan or Illinois or New York or Mississippi or Louisiana??

    There is no shortage of manufacturing workers in the United States. If you can't find these people, then you ain't lookin'. And if you aren't lookin' for unemployed and underemployed Americans to work in your operations, then you are part of the problem that needs to be solved. There may be a lot of long-term unemployed and underemployed Americans who need training, but manufacturing workers have already required training, to learn how you do your work, how you want it done and the way you want it done. Back when I was in economic development, we called it customized job training and it was organized and provided by state community technical colleges, the workers were paid salaries and the colleges organized the instruction, and the state education fund paid for the training and a % of wages during the training period. They even paid company's specialists to teach the classes.

    What they can't find because it doesn't exist in our country is a trained work force willing to work for low wages. Even though the immigrant workers isn't trained either, they'll work for the low wages. Raise the wages, do active multi-state recruiting, and you'll be flooded with first-rate, first-class, English-speaking workers who you will have to train for specific tasks to suit your specific needs but who will also bring a wealth of information to teach you and grow your business in a meaningful way, like Americans have always done.

    It feel like we're in the Twilight Zone to have to even have these conversations. Like "where are we and what's going on". People like Ron Johnson don't make any sense. What is wrong with these people? What happened to them on their way to the US Senate? Who got to them? Or were they the "they" we always knew was there but couldn't identify?
    A Nation Without Borders Is Not A Nation - Ronald Reagan
    Save America, Deport Congress! - Judy

    Support our FIGHT AGAINST illegal immigration & Amnesty by joining our E-mail Alerts at https://eepurl.com/cktGTn

  5. #5
    Senior Member 6 Million Dollar Man's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Judy View Post
    That Republican Ron Johnson from Wisconsin who has introduced a terrible and stupid bill to allow states to import immigrants to steal jobs from Americans says in his state of Wisconsin there is a shortage of manufacturing and dairy workers. Really?! Then why don't you import some unemployed people from .... Michigan or Illinois or New York or Mississippi or Louisiana??
    Good question. My guess is that they want low wage workers. We Americans demand too much money. How dare we want a wage that pays the bills?

    Quote Originally Posted by Judy View Post
    What they can't find because it doesn't exist in our country is a trained work force willing to work for low wages.
    You hit the nail on the head.

    Quote Originally Posted by Judy View Post
    It feel like we're in the Twilight Zone to have to even have these conversations. Like "where are we and what's going on".
    Employers nowadays are trying to find every little way to increase their profit margin, that they are waging a war on American workers in favor for illegals. Sure, there are still some employers who are loyal to the American worker, but it's these traitor employers need to be dealt with. This insanity needs to stop.

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