The Feds Had Better Stop Alabama Before Everyone There Has a Job!

[g5000]

Alabama Farmers Want Illegal Immigrant Workers Back

When HB 56 passed, Alabama Governor Robert Bentley promised that there were plenty of unemployed Alabamans to take the farm jobs the illegal workers left behind.

Now that crops must be harvested on Alabama’s farms, the outcome of the law for agriculture is clear. It failed. Crops are rotting in the fields.

Take, for instance, the tomato crop.

Tomato grower Jerry Spencer hired 50 Americans and provided free transportation to work. After two weeks, only a single worker remained. Most of the workers left after two or three days.

“People weren’t in good enough physical condition to work harder or longer hours and typically gave up when faced with acre after acre of tomato plants ready to be picked,” Spencer said.

Potato farmer Keith Smith added the other problem with finding good workers.

“I’ve had people calling me wanting to work. I haven’t turned any of them down, but they’re not any good. It’s hard work, they just don’t work like the Hispanics with experience,” Smith said.

It isn’t easy going from a job behind a cash register or watching television at home to picking tomatoes and potatoes. Picking is a skill that must be learned.

Spencer said that a Hispanic crew of four could make $150 each by filling 250 to 300 25-pound boxes. Recently, he hired 25 Americans. They only filled 200 boxes for the day. Each of them was paid $24.

The idea that Americans will flock to agricultural jobs and perform well has been argued for years but finally refuted undeniably.

 

[Ed Spacer]

Sorry,americans come first,if youre illegal and dont belong here,youll be deported.

 

[g5000]

It is called migrant work for a reason. It means you have to move around a lot, following the seasons and varying harvest periods for different crops.

You aren't going to find many Americans who will leave their suburban tract house, climb into their Honda Civic, and drive two or three hours to pick tomatoes for 10 bucks an hour to make their mortgage.

It just isn't going to happen.

Prosperous nations have always used immigrant labor for the tasks the citizens feel are beneath them.

Alabama still has the antebellum South's "****** work" stigma attached to manual labor.

Perhaps some jobs that illegals left are being filled, but I seriously doubt that is the prime mover behind Alabama's rising employment.

 

[asaratis]

You move here if you think it is so heavenly, it actually sucks balls economically but you might like the openly racist dickheads who live here.

You are such a judgmental prick! There are openly racist dickheads in every state of the union.

And you have Alabama confused with California...which sucks balls and dicks economically...to the tune of $18 billion dollars on the recent housing bailout by the Obamabots.

Long live Bear Bryant!
Bear Bryant: Facts, Discussion Forum, and Encyclopedia Article

 

[g5000]

Sorry,americans come first,if youre illegal and dont belong here,youll be deported.

Something which anti-immigrant people conveniently forget is that America had full employment before 2007. At a time when we had the same number of illegal immigrants we have today, if not more.

So immigrants are not the cause of unemployment. I think this is just another self-imposed amnesia the New Right hypnotizes itself with so that it can avoid the painful truth that the economy blew up on George Bush's watch and that their sorry plight has nothing to do with darkies. The New Right is always working hard to blame darkies for everything.

The solution to the illegal immigration problem is to raise immigration quotas as was hinted at in the OP.

The labor demand is there, and if you don't meet it, you leave the employer no choice but to use illegal labor or let his crops rot in the ground.

You should not punish the employer for a fucked up national policy.

 

[Ed Spacer]

Im sorry in this economy,americans will do any job. No excuse. Illegal garbage doesnt belong here.

 

[Ed Spacer]

I have solutions and this state is seriously taken them into consideration.

 

[g5000]

Im sorry in this economy,americans will do any job.

The evidence soundly contradicts you.

 

[g5000]

You move here if you think it is so heavenly, it actually sucks balls economically but you might like the openly racist dickheads who live here.

You are such a judgmental prick! There are openly racist dickheads in every state of the union.

Alabama does have more than its fair share. I have lived all around the country, and the Deep South is about 40 years behind the rest of the country when it comes to racial matters.

I have had many personal experiences dealing with the racist assholes of Alabama and Mississippi, including a run-in with the man whose farm they buried the three civil rights workers on in 1964. Though I did not know at the time that's who he was. Anyway, I nearly ended up buried myself.

If you travel on I-65 from Atlanta into Alabama and stop at the first rest stop on the Alabama side of the state line, you will find a rock that sums up their racial agenda masked by "states rights" misdirection pretty succinctly.

 

[Dont Taz Me Bro]

Is there evidence for this claim?

They are drawing a conclusion from this article

Alabama | Immigration Law | Unemployment | Robert Bentley | The Daily Caller

That is correlation without evidence of causation. Would you like to see articles of farmers in Alabama saying they can't find Americans to work on their farms since the illegals left?

Did I say I agreed with the conclusion?

 

[Dont Taz Me Bro]

It is called migrant work for a reason. It means you have to move around a lot, following the seasons and varying harvest periods for different crops.

You aren't going to find many Americans who will leave their suburban tract house, climb into their Honda Civic, and drive two or three hours to pick tomatoes for 10 bucks an hour to make their mortgage.

It just isn't going to happen.

No reason for them to do it when we have a welfare state that pays them not to work. Pull away the welfare state and you'll see Americans filling those jobs.

 

[starcraftzzz]

Alabama's immigration law has already cost the state 6% of its GDP

 

[GuyPinestra]

A few thoughts on illegal labor...

Lowering of wages - In every field that criminal employers have clamored for illegal labor, wages have plummeted. Having experience in both the construction and landscaping fields, I've felt this personally, so please don't try and tell me I don't know what I'm talking about. In construction, the influx of illegals has put American and LEGAL immigrant workers in a serious bind. Trades that formerly allowed a man to earn a decent living haven't seen any kind of rise in wages for over 20 years. Of course, prices haven't stagnated, and these hard-working folks have felt the pinch. In the meantime, did any of you notice the price of homes going DOWN? Nope, not until the recent crash. Housing prices were rising 5-10% a year or more, allowing unscrupulous builders to pocket enormous profits and leaving American workers holding the proverbial bag. Adding insult to injury, the homes these illegals built have a lifespan about HALF of the previous norms. Estimates are that illegal labor has cost the American economy over $200 billion a year in lost wages ALONE.

Agriculture - Lots of farmers and illegal alien apologists will tell you that without their cheap labor, a head of lettuce will cost you $6. This of course, is bullshit. In the fresh fruit and vegetable business, labor as a percentage of cost is 10%. In other words, agribusiness could DOUBLE their wages, drawing in LEGAL workers, and the resulting price increase would make that head of lettuce, are you ready?? $1.10

Now let's take a look at the COST factor...

We have about 30 million illegal aliens in this country today. Yep, not 11 million, which is the number they've been feeding you for a decade, and not the 20 million that Bear-Stearns estimated back in 2006. 30 million illegal aliens.

The American taxpayer foots the bill for these folks across the boards. Their kids go to our schools, lowering the quality of education for our own children, forcing us to pay for bi- or tri-lingual teachers, school lunches, immunizations, etc. Thanks to EMTALA, they use the MOST expensive healthcare in the nation, our ER's, and they don't pay a DIME for it. They pay no taxes on their income, screwing Uncle Sam, and then they send 70% of it out of the country, screwing our economy. Remittances is the #2 source of income for Mexico, right behind PEMEX. Additionally, illegals occupy about 25% of the jail space in this nation. At $50k per year, per head, that adds up really fast.

I'm not going to take 8 hours to re-source what I'm saying here, I'm really tired of it. I've lived this problem for decades, testified to it at Congressional hearings, and witnessed first hand the destruction of American lives and property.

Fuck those farmers, they should pay a better wage and they'd get a better worker. We fought a damned Civil War to abolish slavery, and these fucks want to bring it back using Mexicans instead of blacks. If you support illegal immigration, you support slavery, plain and simple.

 

[g5000]

It is called migrant work for a reason. It means you have to move around a lot, following the seasons and varying harvest periods for different crops.

You aren't going to find many Americans who will leave their suburban tract house, climb into their Honda Civic, and drive two or three hours to pick tomatoes for 10 bucks an hour to make their mortgage.

It just isn't going to happen.

No reason for them to do it when we have a welfare state that pays them not to work. Pull away the welfare state and you'll see Americans filling those jobs.

That will just keep them poor forever. As I said before, we had full employment before the economy blew up. It is a better goal to get back to full employment at the higher wages they had before. Forcing the unemployed into migrant labor is moving backwards. It is better to fix the economy and get it going in a proper direction.

The problem is not lazy workers. The problem is incompetent government and uninformed voters.

We need an educated work force for America to be strong, not a nation of unskilled laborers.

 

[g5000]

As I said earlier, I seriously doubt Alabama's increase in employment is the result of people going out and picking crops.

This is what I mean about people basing solutions on false premises. Why not find out the ACTUAL cause of the increase in employment so we can USE it as a template?

If you think some tough immigration law is the reason, and you are wrong, then suggesting other states implement tough immigration laws to increase employment will fall flat on its face.

And you will have done nothing for America except demand "lazy people" go pick crops.

HUGE step in the wrong direction. America is strong because our work force labors at the peak of the technological pyramid, not the bottom!

So find out what jobs Alabamians are actually getting and find out how that actually happened.

 

[9thIDdoc]

It is called migrant work for a reason. It means you have to move around a lot, following the seasons and varying harvest periods for different crops.

You aren't going to find many Americans who will leave their suburban tract house, climb into their Honda Civic, and drive two or three hours to pick tomatoes for 10 bucks an hour to make their mortgage.

It just isn't going to happen.

Prosperous nations have always used immigrant labor for the tasks the citizens feel are beneath them.

Alabama still has the antebellum South's "****** work" stigma attached to manual labor.

Perhaps some jobs that illegals left are being filled, but I seriously doubt that is the prime mover behind Alabama's rising employment.

Total BS. I have worked the fields for $5/day plus lunch and was glad for the opportunity.
In my neck of the woods 10/hr. is considered high pay and blacks seem more likely to shun "****** work" than whites. You sound like a blind man who seriously considers himself an art critic.

 

[Dont Taz Me Bro]

As I said earlier, I seriously doubt Alabama's increase in employment is the result of people going out and picking crops.

This is what I mean about people basing solutions on false premises. Why not find out the ACTUAL cause of the increase in employment so we can USE it as a template?

If you think some tough immigration law is the reason, and you are wrong, then suggesting other states implement tough immigration laws to increase employment will fall flat on its face.

And you will have done nothing for America except demand "lazy people" go pick crops.

HUGE step in the wrong direction. America is strong because our work force labors at the peak of the technological pyramid, not the bottom!

So find out what jobs Alabamians are actually getting and find out how that actually happened.

I don't consider exploiting illegal immigrants to work for sweatshop wages to exactly be a step in the right direction either.

 

[GuyPinestra]

As I said earlier, I seriously doubt Alabama's increase in employment is the result of people going out and picking crops.

This is what I mean about people basing solutions on false premises. Why not find out the ACTUAL cause of the increase in employment so we can USE it as a template?

If you think some tough immigration law is the reason, and you are wrong, then suggesting other states implement tough immigration laws to increase employment will fall flat on its face.

And you will have done nothing for America except demand "lazy people" go pick crops.

HUGE step in the wrong direction. America is strong because our work force labors at the peak of the technological pyramid, not the bottom!

So find out what jobs Alabamians are actually getting and find out how that actually happened.

I don't consider exploiting illegal immigrants to work for sweatshop wages to exactly be a step in the right direction either.

Agreed, it's nothing more that 21st Century SLAVERY...