Thread: Immigrants not the villain in bosses' tale

It is unbelievable how everyone against illegal immigration is racist or prejudice!

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_4269775

Immigrants not the villain in bosses' tale
By Jim Spencer
Denver Post Staff Columnist

She waited two hours to speak at an immigration hearing Wednesday, but Helen Krieble finally got to sum up America's real problem.

"If you are outside of the quota (for foreign work visas)," Krieble told U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard, "you have a choice of hiring illegal or closing your business and firing all of your American workers."

Krieble's statement and her call for a new, private program to provide millions of guest-worker visas drew the only applause at the hearing hosted by Allard.

"Thank you so much for being a small voice on the other side of the issue," businesswoman Brenda Buster told Krieble after hearing politicians and policy wonks wax about the costs of illegal immigrants.

Those costs are a serious problem. But scapegoating won't solve them. Of nine people who spoke at Allard's hearing, only Krieble offered a solution. Besides running an equestrian center in the Denver suburbs, Krieble chairs a think tank named for her father - The Vernon K. Krieble Foundation. It studies public policy from a free-market perspective.

Krieble wants a privately run guest- worker program that matches foreign workers with American jobs that citizens won't fill. She includes this country's currently undocumented employees in that labor pool. She believes these illegal workers can undergo criminal background checks, be matched with jobs, given a foolproof ID and sent back to work in as little as a single day outside the U.S.

Krieble's plan has captured the imagination of Colorado Gov. Bill Owens. Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., has offered something similar to break the immigration reform impasse in Congress.

Krieble's idea has problems in the areas of enforcement and health care. But at least she is interested in something more than election-year immigrant bashing.

"We are focused on punishing people who wish to get a good job in the United States filling jobs that are going begging," Krieble said. There is "no legal path for either employers or employees" to fill those jobs. "When you have to become a criminal or close your business because you can't get a legal worker, it's not right." Nor is it right to blame illegal immigrants for all of America's problems.

"There is building an enormous prejudice against foreigners in our country," Krieble said in an interview. "It's a terrible villainization. ... When you polarize people so radically, we could have race wars. ... That just isn't decent in this day and age."

Krieble's point is that it is unnecessary. Her guest-worker proposal envisions no road to citizenship, only a path to a decent, legal job that may cut illegal immigration by as much as 90 percent, she said.

"There are bad people in any group," she said. "But we must admit that Mexicans are hard-working, religious, family- oriented people who give you enormous value for the wages you pay them."

Folks like Buster, who runs Lyons Sandstone, can relate. In 2005, she said, the Longmont newspaper ran an article on the labor shortage facing her and others.

"I opened the Sunday paper, and top of the fold on the front page is a picture of my stone quarry," Buster said. "I said, 'I can't buy this large a help-wanted ad.' I wondered what would happen. I got three calls. The first was a hate call saying I was un-American, God was watching and how could I possibly say there aren't U.S. workers. The other two people said, 'Are you hiring?' I said, 'Of course we're hiring."'

One guy came for an interview and got a job offer that he turned down, Buster said. The other fellow never showed up.

Bemoaning the costs of illegal immigration changes nothing. Each summer, Krieble advertises for people to clean rest rooms, collect trash and scoop manure at horse shows.

"I advertise those jobs for $10 an hour," she said. "Nobody applies. I hired eight (foreign) workers this year. It cost me $7,000 for visas."

She was lucky visas were available.

"I know peach growers in Palisade," Krieble said. "They're so frustrated that they can't get legal workers that they pooled together and said, 'Let's see if this is really about wages.' They advertised peach-picking jobs at $20 an hour. Not one U.S. kid applied for the job."

Jim Spencer's column appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. He can be reached at 303-954-1771 or jspencer@denverpost.com.

"We are focused on punishing people who wish to get a good job in the United States filling jobs that are going begging," Krieble said. There is "no legal path for either employers or employees" to fill those jobs. "When you have to become a criminal or close your business because you can't get a legal worker, it's not right." Nor is it right to blame illegal immigrants for all of America's problems.

"There is building an enormous prejudice against foreigners in our country," Krieble said in an interview. "It's a terrible villainization. ... When you polarize people so radically, we could have race wars. ... That just isn't decent in this day and age."

In the first place why do the American people have to justify why they don't 12 to more like 30 million illegal aliens to be given legal citizenship or a guest worker program in this country? This doesn't make sense to me...
In the second place the only thing illegal aliens are being blamed for are the problems they cause by being here illegally!

Also many of these businesses are doing this out of choice making it hard on the ones...I agree...that may not want to in order to compete. Therefore, we should be stopping the real criminal of employers who hire illegals. They like to act dumb and say I didn't know...but we all know...THEY KNOW!

When our borders are massively overtaken by a foreign country...you think we are not going to be angry about that??? GET REAL! We probably will end up having race wars because YOU IDOTS stand by and do nothing, pandering in fact to this whole damn problem. BUT THEN AGAIN...THE ONLY VIOLENCE I SEE...SEEM TO BE COMING FROM THE VERY ONES YOU ARE STANDING FOR.

What about La Raza...DO YOU NOT SEE RACISM IN THIS ORGANIZATION??? YOU SPEAK A DOUBLE STANDARD LADY. So until you can LOOK AT THE WHOLE PROBLEM...SIT DOWN AND BE QUIET!

"I know peach growers in Palisade," Krieble said. "They're so frustrated that they can't get legal workers that they pooled together and said, 'Let's see if this is really about wages.' They advertised peach-picking jobs at $20 an hour. Not one U.S. kid applied for the job."


I'm sorry, but I find that hard to believe. Hell, I'll pick peaches for $20.00 an hour

Those costs are a serious problem. But scapegoating won't solve them. Of nine people who spoke at Allard's hearing, only Krieble offered a solution. Besides running an equestrian center in the Denver suburbs, Krieble chairs a think tank named for her father - The Vernon K. Krieble Foundation. It studies public policy from a free-market perspective.

I guess Ms. Krieble can now be attributed to having exclusive knowledge and solutions to all the world's problems. Wow! - she is the ONLY ONE with a solution. Oh, she chairs a think-tank named for ('established by' maybe?) her father.... a study of 'free-market' (read 'open borders') economics no doubt.

Krieble wants a privately run guest- worker program that matches foreign workers with American jobs that citizens won't fill. She includes this country's currently undocumented employees in that labor pool. She believes these illegal workers can undergo criminal background checks, be matched with jobs, given a foolproof ID and sent back to work in as little as a single day outside the U.S

A privately-run guest worker program? What the heck does that mean?
No thanks.

Krieble's point is that it is unnecessary. Her guest-worker proposal envisions no road to citizenship, only a path to a decent, legal job that may cut illegal immigration by as much as 90 percent, she said.

Just re-labeling something 'legal' that was previously illegal - does not solve the underlying problem(s). EVEN GREATER NUMBERS of illegals will follow shortly thereafter.

"There are bad people in any group," she said. "But we must admit that Mexicans are hard-working, religious, family- oriented people who give you enormous value for the wages you pay them."

http://www.immigrationshumancost.org

"I know peach growers in Palisade," Krieble said. "They're so frustrated that they can't get legal workers that they pooled together and said, 'Let's see if this is really about wages.' They advertised peach-picking jobs at $20 an hour. Not one U.S. kid applied for the job."

Heck, $20/hour for peaches?
Is John McCain still hiring for $50/hr lettuce? <g>. I applied, but curiously, he hasn't gotten back to me. Boo-hoo.

religious, family- oriented people who give you enormous value for the wages you pay them."

Translation....They're Catholic with a lot of kids and they work real cheap!