islandpacket.com
One of the worst clichés in the immigration debate is that illegal aliens in the work force "do the jobs Americans won't do," hence the need for a general amnesty.
But is the conventional wisdom true? Weeks ago as part of a broader identity theft and illegal document probe, immigration and customs agents raided Swift and Co. meat processing plants in six states, rounding up hundreds of illegal workers. Yet the plants managed to stay open without serious manpower shortages. What happened next? The line of applicants hoping to fill the jobs was "out the door."
To be sure, this is but one example, but there are others, such as the 2,500 who showed up last year to apply for work at Wal-Mart when they opened a store just outside the Chicago city limits. Even in this good economy, many Americans are working hard to find jobs. Yes, most poor immigrants, legal or otherwise, will work hard when they arrive in this country. But it is a canard, almost a libel on the industriousness of American workers, to blithely say that a liberal immigration policy has little impact on employment or wages because the jobs being taken are ones "Americans won't do."
Jim Vosler
Hilton Head Island
Posted by tyne at January 30, 2007