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Wednesday, October 10, 2012

State Sends Illegal Immigrants Packing. And Nobody Wants The Jobs


In yet another case of the law of unintended consequences (which virtually anyone could have predicted), Alabama’s HB56 law was meant to drive illegals out of the state to purportedly “free up jobs” for native Alabamians.  Well, guess how that worked out?  They don’t want the damn jobs.  See, it’s too easy to live off Uncle Sam.  If it’s a choice between 99 weeks of working a real job or 99 weeks of free checks from the government, what do you think people are going to choose more often than not?
According to this recent BusinessWeek article, employers simply can’t find enough workers to fill the roles traditionally employed by illegal immigrants, so the next best option is to import legal immigrants.  Refugees from Africa…

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sounds to me like the free market is working just fine here. Employers are no longer able to break the law by hiring illegals. Instead they have to play fair in the same labor market that we all have to compete in. Either they increase wages in order to meet the demand for the labor, or they find cheaper LEGAL options like importing legal immigrants to fill these slots.

Anonymous said...

Why would they when they can sit around all day doing nothing (drugs maybe) and get paid by the taxpayers. That's why illegals risk their lives coming to the USofA, they're willing to earn their keep whereas the dregs of our society expect to be kept.

Anonymous said...

I say privatize unemployment in the sense that people are hired to find jobs for people on unemployment and if the unemployed worker refuses the job, cut his unemployment off. Otherwise you will never get these people off unemployment. I say do the same with welfare recipients.

Anonymous said...

To 12:43 -- it's not a free market if the government is stepping in to prevent workers from filling jobs. Restricting immigrants from coming here to work these jobs is about as opposite of the free market as you can get. There is no legal option to hire enough workers to fill these jobs. That's why people come here illegally.

You must be a pretty big liberal, 12:43, since you don't understand the free market and you probably support this massive government intrusion into how business owners run their businesses.

Anonymous said...

Obviously, the jobs don't pay enough to attract a workforce. I mean, who wouldn't be a trash man for $250k?

Anonymous said...

When 1/3 of an employees paycheck is lifted out of pocket to pay for "programs", and his employer pays another burden on top of that. Meanwhile, the Illegal Immigrant works for less, keeps all his pay, and the employer paying him cash pays no added burden, has less paperwork to do, and the Immigrant takes advantage of the "programs" because he's not on the books!

That's why we need a flat tax. Everybody gets a voucher for the first xx.00 spent, then everybody pays the same sales tax on things after that. Then the Illegals couldn't get vouchers til they became citizens, and would pay more tax than those with vouchers.

You're welcome.

Anonymous said...

Yes 1:30, I'm a big liberal because I believe in enforcing immigration law. Sure thing bud.

Anonymous said...

To 2:34, I'm glad you have such a respect for whatever law the morons in DC dream up. I'm also sure that respect for the law extends to ObamaCare, affirmative action, and other anti-free market laws that you and your liberal buddies dream up.

Personally, I like small government and the free market. You can have your "papers, please!" regime if you want. I choose freedom.

Anonymous said...

very few people are willing to do certain jobs like picking tomatoes for instance. one state that cracked down on illegals had vegatables rotting in the fields so they put inmates on the job. I saw this on the news. One inmate said it was too hard another too hot. They would not do it. So in the case of farming and food production we are either going to have to get used to paying more for food or contend with these low paying jobs because now a days farmers are under contract with major corps and can't afford to pay workers much and that's why it is important to buy directly from a farmer if possible.
Romney's mentioned to streamline the work visas making it a quicker process and less expensive for migrant workers to come here legally and work at the farms for the season.

Anonymous said...

Exactly, 3:56 -- make it easy for workers to come here, work for a few months, and then go home. Right now we don't have a system that allows a large number of people to do that.

You want to hear something funny? The people who study illegal immigration say the increased border security has actually led to more illegal immigrants in the U.S. In the old days, Mexicans would come across the border illegally, work in the fields for a few months, go home, and do it again next year. But now, they can't just cross the border again and again. So they cross once and stay here. Those crying "secure the border" are actually supporting policies that has led to more illegal immigrants here!

Give them a legal way to come here temporarily and you won't have a very illegal immigration problem.

Anonymous said...

As an employer, I guess I need to find out about ag employees. Might be a good deal. Somehow remodeling can be ag oriented....