Thread: US Citizens Willing To Work

U.S. citizens willing to work


Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 03/9/07

Columnist Ruben Navarrette repeated one of the biggest falsehoods in the immigration debate: that illegal aliens take jobs Americans won't do. ("Higher wages won't prompt Americans to do immigrants' work," Feb. 4.)

What happened when immigration agents raided the Swift meat processing plant in Colorado? The Rocky Mountain News reported the line of applicants hoping to fill the jobs vacated by the illegal aliens was out the door. When Wal-Mart opened a store outside Chicago last year, 25,000 Americans showed up to apply for the low-end jobs.

There are no jobs Americans won't do. About 79 percent of the 23 million workers in service jobs, 81 percent of the 6 million workers in construction and 77 percent of the 10 million workers in production jobs are native-born U.S. citizens. A study by Harvard economist George Borjas indicates that cheap immigrant labor has reduced the wages of Americans performing low-skilled jobs by 7.4 percent. In the meatpacking industry, jobs pay less than half in real terms of what they did 20 years ago. It has been estimated that the total dollars American workers lose to illegal immigration is as high as $278 billion.

Businesses that complain they can't fill jobs with Americans just will not pay the wages and benefits to enable American workers to live in accordance with American standards. In the meantime, it's the American taxpayer who has to pay for the education, medical and other services for the families of illegal workers.

Hubert Wooten

http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/articl ... 7703090397

Ruben Navarrette is a lying twisted scumbag just like Anthony Romero of the ACLU.