Thread: Mother protests for son

05/09/2007
Mother protests for son
By: Hilary Lewis


Staff Photo/Raymond Thompson Pam Steadman protested against day laborers at Town Square last week
Pam Steadman quietly stood alone on the side of the road at the Culpeper Town Square every day last week.

As cars drove by honking, their passengers stared out of the window, trying to catch a glimpse and read the sign she proudly held.

"Illegals get hired, but my son who has a traumatic brain injury gets fired," it said in bold red letters.
But Steadman's fight has nothing to do with immigration, she says. It's about equal opportunities. Steadman feels that the immigrant workers who stand at the town mall daily should not have the same rights as native-born Americans.

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Steadman's protest is motivated by her son, Travis, 35, who was thrown out of the back seat of a car while attending Radford University in 1997. He now suffers from a traumatic brain condition.

Due to his injuries, Travis has had problems finding and keeping a job. At his last job, he was fired because he has problems multi-tasking.

Steadman said Travis was simply sent home one day, told his parents he lost his job and was very upset. When they called the company to ask why, the Steadman's were told that under the law, that information could not be revealed.

"This particular company knew of his deficiency and I want to know what happened," Steadman said. "After one year and a half of employment there, they didn't even bother to call us."

Left without answers, Steadman sought the aid of social services, but was turned away time and again. She helped Travis fill out employment applications, wrote to politicians and health care providers, and still her disabled son could not get a job.

"He doesn't have enough money to afford his own place. We have been fighting for him for the past eight years trying to get social services to help," she said.

Meanwhile, thousands of Hispanic immigrants are given jobs everyday with the ease of standing on the side of the road and waiting for a truck to stop, Steadman said.

"Immigrants have jobs everywhere, but Travis could not find a job for three months when he arrived in town," she said. "I blame our government. I'm getting tired of my son son being treated like a second-class citizen."

Steadman says her son is not the only person who cannot find an unskilled full-time job with benefits. She claims that Americans simply cannot compete with the cheap labor immigrants provide.

In a study by Steven A. Camarota for the Center for Immigration Studies, immigration has reduced the wages of the average native in a low-skilled occupation by an estimated $1,915 per year, or roughly 12 percent.

"Immigrants are 60 percent more likely to be employed in low-skilled occupations than native born workers," Camarota wrote. Steadman blames the American need for health benefits, something immigrants pass up in turn for fast cash.

"I have seen trucks come in and pick them up everyday. They can get jobs because companies are hiring them and giving them cheap labor," Steadman said. "They are getting a couple of bucks under the table, its ridiculous."

In the meantime, Travis wants to work to move out of a well-fare state. He doesn't want to depend on his parents for the rest of his life.

"My son would give everything to get hired and be able to keep a job," said Steadman. "We can take care of everybody else around the world, why can't we take care of our own citizens?"

Since her protest began, Steadman said that she has only received two negative responses to her sign. One man called her a racist, another gave her an obscene gesture. Other than that, Steadman said that people have stood behind her 100 percent.

"I want to get people talking about it. We have a real problem in this country," said Steadman. "I'm disappointed in our government and I'm sad to be an American."

Steadman plans to continue her fight until Travis is given back his job or finds another. She doesn't mean any harm to immigrant workers, she just wants what's best for her son.

"My accomplishment is trying to help my son. People are not getting the help they need from our government," she said. "And we need to make some changes."
http://www.timescommunity.com/site/tab3 ... 6078&rfi=6

Thanks for posting this jimpasz.


Here's my ranting response:

I think this is a point that has gone unrecognized, or at least, under-recognized so far in the debate.

I have heard, all too frequently, that "we need 'immigrant' workers". Why?
Because the OBLs contend that "we don't have enough domestic workers available".

Illegal aliens comprise between about 5.0% to 8.0% of the US domestic workforce. (The estimates vary, as it's hard to count people that 'don't want to be counted').

OK, let's consider this for a moment: the "official" US unemployment rate is approx. 4.5%. Let's note also that the "official" compilation does [conveniently] not count, or under count people that: are not registered and/or actively searching, people that nominally have jobs-even if they are part-time and do not support families nor provide a living wage, etc.

Further, so the point which gets overlooked casually much too frequently (in my opinion) is who are these people in the 4.5% (+) that are seeking jobs. As we know from many studies of the subject matter, there are the transitory unemployed and the chronic unemployed. The transitory group represent the randomness of a large and complex economy, and, accordingly tends to be impersonal - at least to a degree. But how about the US chronically unemployed? Who has advocated for them?

Why are we debating working rights for people that have no legal basis to even be here when we already have a group of disenfranchised people - that are (overwhelmingly): not breaking any laws, are unemployed, do genuinely deserve a job, and, oh yes, are US citizens.

Or, stated another way, if we were to justify allowing illegals to stay and work, why shouldn't we have a policy of full employment (eg. 0% unemployment) for our existing domestic workforce and US population?
That way, doing so both helps many people that do deserve the jobs, and guarantees that the money earned remain within the US economy for the most part.

If you scan through the recent verbiage on this topic, you'll notice that the think-tank economists claim that 95% employment is full employment. My response: oh yeah? to who? I'll be willing to bet that the 5% or so that are unemployed would disagree.

I really don't like it when I see our needy and deserving fellow Americans going without jobs when illegals - without deserving them - get jobs here.