Friday, August 10, 2007

My comment on: Illegal Immigrants Receiving Slave Wages

My comment on: Illegal Immigrants Receiving Slave Wages.

I agree with you, immigrants do get paid a lot less because they are illegal. Illegal immigrants often use false social security numbers and employers even pay immigrants cash and take advantage of them. Although they are illegal, I don’t think it’s fair to take advantage and pay them less for a tough hard days’ work. A new law will require employers to fire employees who fail to provide proper identification and social security numbers. According to the article, Expected crackdown on illegal immigrants in the workforce will cause problems for many sectors, opponents say by Juan Castillo:

A new crackdown on the hiring of illegal immigrants will lead to the loss of 300,000 to 400,000 jobs in Texas in the next year, causing great harm to employers, workers and the economy, Bill Hammond, the head of the state association of businesses said Wednesday.

As a result, this new law will affect both employers and consumers because illegal immigrants make about 6% of Texas’ workforce. This can put an end to the slave wages illegal immigrants receive, but now they will be out of jobs. So this goes back to your point that “illegal immigrants should not be coming into the United States,” you are right. Without jobs, illegal immigrants won’t have incentives to come to the U.S., but the economy will be greatly affected. Until new reforms are taken to help illegal immigrants come legally to the U.S. to work, live, or pursue the “American Dream” this will continue to be a problem for both employers and illegal workers. I say help because illegal immigrants continue to come to the U.S. legally, illegally and with or with no fence and even across the ocean. This new law will not only affect construction employers, but also farmers with illegal immigrants making about 70% of the workforce according to the article. At least this new law will end the poor treatment against illegal immigrants and make U.S. citizens realize the importance of illegal immigrants and their labor to the economy.

Thursday, August 2, 2007

Immigrant Compromise and Equality

Immigrants seem to be one of the biggest problems for politicians. People demand new policies and are even protesting against illegal immigrants. A new compromise brought about on Capitol Hill proposes to make illegal immigrant workers “legal” immigrant workers. The system usually targets the immigrants for their illegal status and actions, but do nothing to target employers who provide the work for them. On the other hand, employers even benefit from this by paying immigrants lower wages for doing some of the toughest jobs. With this plan, Congress could approve a biometric card that employers could use to verify a worker's legality and cut down on some of the abuses that immigrant workers go through. At the same time, this plan targets employers hiring illegal workers and immigrants. More on this compromise here: Immigration Battlefronts: Washington can get on track with compromise.

This would at least be a step to make sure that immigrants are here legally and at the same time protect them from employers. I come from an immigrant family, but we understand there’s a system and we play by the rules. My mother is now a naturalized citizen and we are natural born citizens, yet we still face discrimination. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with allowing immigrants to work here, but its society that needs to accept immigrants as people and not things. The system is used and abused to benefit the unions and “mass society” but now that minorities are growing here in America, there is a bigger incentive to protect their rights as well.

New polls show that minority votes and swinger votes are very important and may even decide upcoming elections. Minority groups are going to follow politicians that have similar ideologies and take them into consideration. This just goes on to demonstrate how politicians and the system always work for their “self and personal interests.” Without the importance of minority voters that are now becoming the majority, then no attention would be put on them or even be targeted for political support.

The system doesn’t work for the people, its working to protect their interests and keep their control of government and the people. This is just another reason why I don’t believe the system works for the people. Everyone in charge always uses the system to their advantage. Celebrities use their status to get away with breaking the law. For example Mel Gibson and Lindsey Lohan, they received special treatment when DWI. If this would have been any other citizen, they would be treated violently and immediately put in jail. The system is just corrupt and no one is entirely equally protected. Until equality for a citizens is truly enforced, the system will be trusted and maybe who knows reduce crime altogether.

Monday, July 30, 2007

Immigrants Helping the Economy

After much controversy about immigrants, researches say that they can help with the current problem in the home market. Immigrants make up about 12% of homebuyers and with the baby boomers retiring; immigrants are buying the new homes and helping the market.

Read full article: Immigrants keep sagging housing market afloat.

Monday, July 16, 2007

Newest Naturalized Citizens

More and more immigrants are becoming U.S. citizens. In Texas, minority groups continue to grow each year making their participation in politics more important. Many of the new naturalized citizens were looking forward to voting in the next elections. Immigrants are also qualified and understand the language. This is just another step closer to the American Dream.

For complete article see: 900 become U.S. citizens during ceremony.