Does our Country Need Illegal Immigrants?

Does the U.S. Need Illegal Immigrants to Perform Jobs That Americans Will Not Do?

-Daniel Szabo


ICE and U.S. Marshals capture 2 fleeing foreign murder suspects- 1 target suspected of gunning down his aunt and teenage cousin at church (“Ice and U.S. Marshalls”).
10 gang members arrested following ICE-led operation in Charlotte- Arrests include members of MS-13, Surenos, Brown Pride, SUR-13, and Latin Kings (“10 Gang Members”).
5 defendants convicted of sex trafficking for forcing Guatemalan girls and women into prostitution (“5 Defendants”).

The preceding is a handful of headlines from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) website. ICE is structured under the umbrella of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and is responsible for many areas of securing our homeland, including visa security, illegal arms trafficking, child pornography and sex tourism, as well as a host of other areas (ICE Programs). The headlines above are just three of dozens of headlines outlined on their website, within the last month. As a matter of fact, the ones outlined above were within the same week, and the one common thread that they all have is illegal immigrants. An illegal immigrant is a person who enters the United States without government permission or who has stayed beyond the termination date of a visa. Plain and simple, any illegal immigrant has committed a violation of law and is a criminal.

Steven Camarota, the Director of Research for the Center of Immigration Studies (CIS), reports in a 2002 study, “Immigration‘s Impact on Public Coffers”, households headed by illegal aliens imposed costs of $26 billion on the Federal Government, and only paid $16 billion in federal taxes, which is an annual net fiscal deficit of $10.4 billion or approximately $2,700.00 per household. Among the largest federal costs were Medicaid ($2.5 billion), medical treatment for the uninsured ($2.2 billion), food programs such as food stamps, WIC, and free school lunches ($1.9 billion), and the federal prison/court systems ($1.6 billion) (2).

Frank Sherry, director of the National Immigration Forum, argues, “The costs of the children of immigrants are accounted for [in Camarota’s report], but not their contributions to the economy as workers and taxpayers, and that the report’s conclusions were not helpful to the debate on immigration reform (qtd. in Fitzgerald A21). Edward Rubenstein, President of ESR Research Economic Consultants reported in 2002 that $32 billion was sent home to 19 Latin American countries by both legal and illegal immigrants residing in the United States, with Mexico at the top of the list with $10.5 billion (Rubenstein).

Many would argue that we need illegal immigrant laborers in the United States to perform jobs that Americans “will not do.” Considering the numbers and statistics that I have laid before you, my question is this- Do we really need illegal immigrants in the United States?

What exactly are these jobs that Americans will not do? What roles are illegal immigrants filling that Americans refuse to fill? Illegal immigrants gain employment as cooks, maids, nannies, field workers, and construction workers, to name a few. These are real labor intense jobs. The great unanswered question is this: Are these really jobs that Americans just will not do, or are the wages being offered too low? No one goes out into a hot field to pick strawberries for fun. They do it for the money. That’s how capitalism works.

There is a solution. There is one labor pool available in the United States, with approximately 2.5 million able bodied, more than capable people to fill these roles at a wage comparable to the wages paid to the illegal immigrants, and that pool is our very own prison system.

According to the United States Department of Justice statistics, on December 31, 2007 there were 2,293,157 prisoners held in federal, state, and local jails, half of which are incarcerated for non-violent crimes (“Prison Statistics”). That is a huge pool to draw labor from. Colorado is one place that is starting to take advantage of such a large pool of laborers.

Sonya Geis of The Washington Post reported in the spring of 2007, in response to the passing of tougher immigration laws, Colorado rolled out a program in which local farmers contract with the state for the labor, and paying the cost of the guards and transportation to have supervised teams of minimum security prison inmates plant, weed, and harvest on privately owned Colorado farms (Geis A02). Kirk Mitchell, staff writer for the Denver Post, reported that State Representative Dorothy Butcher (D-Pueblo), who spearheaded the legislation, said the farmers pay $9.60 per inmate per hour for the labor, which covers the supervisor’s salary and the transportation costs to and from work. Of that $9.60 per hour, the inmate is paid $4.00 per day, instead of the usual $.60 per day that inmates earn in other prison jobs (Mitchell A1).

According to Mitchell, minimum security inmate, Linda Buchman, one of the inmates participating in the program said she is so happy to leave the prison each day, that she doesn’t mind waking up at 3:30 in the morning and working in temperatures that reach over 100 degrees (Mitchell A1), and Katherine Sanguinetti, a spokesperson for the Colorado Department of Corrections, said “it’s a win-win situation”. The inmates stay occupied, making them easier to manage, and the farmers’ crops are not left behind, due to lack of farmhands (Mitchell A1).

Another benefit of the program, according to Ari Zavaras, executive director of the Colorado Department of Corrections, is the significant and valuable job skills that the inmates pick up (Frosch, par. 21). The inmates are learning a trade and therefore becoming a more valuable part of society.

The Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition views the inmates’ pay as problematic (Frosch, par. 18). Christie Donner, Executive Director said, “This feels like the re-invention of the plantation. You have a captive labor force essentially working for their room and board in order to benefit the employer. This isn’t a job training program. It’s an exploitive program” (Frosch, par. 19).

Be that it may seem like the reinvention of the plantation, or what some may call an illegal practice, very closely related to slavery, one just needs to read the 13th Amendment of the United States Constitution, which reads Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for a crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Another way to fill these jobs that “Americans won’t do” is to use offenders before they go to prison, as an alternative to incarceration, as an extension of the community service program imposed on by courts already, in every state in the country. Community service traditionally is a way for our courts to provide free labor to various levels of public service and non-profit groups. It could easily be extended to private business. Just as the case with the Colorado prison system, private farms could contract with the municipality to receive workers through the Community Service program. The private business would pay the municipality, who would in turn, pay the offender, who would undoubtedly earn valuable on the job training, as well as a small wage. Again, this would help industry that would otherwise rely on illegal immigrant labor, as well as keeping one more person from occupying our jails, which is a financial burden in its own right.

With our state and federal prisons being overcrowded, many judges are forced to keep criminals on the street simply because of a lack of places to incarcerate them, so sentencing criminals to community service in private industry only makes sense. It is another win-win situation for the courts, the convicted, the municipality, and the private industry receiving the labor, at a cost comparable to that of an illegal immigrant, doing the same job.

It is unlikely that we will ever deport every last person that is in our country illegally, but by eliminating the jobs that attract people to come here illegally, we can certainly take away the desire for illegal immigrants to come here in the first place. Unemployment rates are up, our prisons are overcrowded, and because of tougher immigration laws, there is a shortage of labor in the agriculture and construction industries. Using prison inmates and court mandated community service programs to fill these vital roles would have a tremendous positive impact on our economy. According to the Constitution of the United States, it is a legal practice, and one that should be explored, developed, and used to its fullest extent.

The Love of a Lifetime

After class, I attempted to complete this assignment as first instructed, and I did take a hike around campus and look for an object or a feeling that I could use for this task. I must say, it wasn’t easy looking for something that I deemed big enough, or important enough to actually sit down and write about, until I reached into my pocket, and pulled out my very own pack of USA Golds.

That’s when it hit me. If there is one thing on the FMCC campus that is a huge part of my life, it would be the pack of cigarettes in my front right pocket. At first glance, they look just like any other pack of USA Golds. To the non-smoker, they are nothing more then a cardboard box, with a patriotic logo, filled with 20 Class-A cigarettes. The logo has an American flag and an eagle on it, and the words Made in USA printed on it as well.

You pull the little plastic zipper thing and rip the top off, open the pack, and yank out that little piece of aluminum foil to get to the golden goodness that awaits inside. There they are. 20 golden filters all lined up in neat little rolls like tiny soldiers marching in a parade. If there is one friend that has been there in good times and bad it is my cigarettes. For years I have been trying to get them to leave me alone, to go find someone else to hang out with, but around every corner, they are there with me, unwavering, never leaving me, never judging me, and never a cross word.

When I experienced the pain of losing a loved one or a good friend, they consoled me. When I saw my 4 children born, each time they congratulated me. They were there for each and every one, like a good friend should. Each time I prepare to board an airplane, they know how scared I am, and they are right there to comfort me, to let me know that it’s going to be ok, and never once do they laugh or find humor in my anxiety. When I felt betrayed by those closest to me, I had a choice to make. I could either pick up that 12 gauge or my reliable old friend. Luckily for some, I picked my good old buddy, USA Gold.

As I think back to all the times I spent trying to get rid of my cigarettes I can’t help to think about the fact that they are there for me when no one else is. I never have to look far to find their warm embrace, sheltering me from any storm that would come my way.

Christianity- The New Black

Recently, we have witnessed great victories by members of some traditionally discriminated groups. In our latest Presidential election, we had one side, a black candidate for President, and on the other side, a woman candidate for Vice-President. What a victory for both groups, but there still is one group suffering discrimination in this country, everyday, and you need not go any further then your neighborhood public school or your local big box home improvement warehouse to witness it. That group is Christians.

It was Christmas, 2007, when the group that I had founded, Americans for Putting America 1st, had embarked on a project that was designed to bring a little bit of joy to our wounded veterans, infirmed at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. From September of that year, until the 2nd week of December, I had headed a nationwide gift drive, in which myself, and a small group of other patriots would personally deliver the gifts to the hospital, one room at a time. I had enlisted the help of one of the office administrators at my children’s elementary school, who was excited to collect gifts from the staff at the school, as well as at her church. We had decided that it would be awesome if the school children could participate, as well, and the Assistant Principal had given the go ahead for the children to create cards in Art class, on one condition; that there be no mention of Christmas in the artwork. Leave it to public education to take Christ out of Christmas.

The last stop I made before having the gift bags all ready to take to D.C. was that elementary school, nestled in Hanover County, Virginia, an historically Conservative county, in a traditionally Conservative commonwealth. Election results from Hanover County in recent Presidential elections are as follows: 2004, 71% voted for George Bush. 2000, 68% voted for George Bush, and in 1996, Bob Dole slammed Bill Clinton, 63% to 28%. My point is, Hanover County voters, vote Conservative. They are Christians.

As I sat reading those cards that night, I began to weep. I still do not know to this day, if my tears were caused by the warm, heartfelt messages from young child to wounded warrior, or if it was due to the fact that as I read over 200 homemade Christmas cards, I saw no mention of Christmas. It was as if the ACLU themselves had sent a liaison to Cold Harbor to monitor the project. How could over 200, predominantly white, Christian, middle class, American school children do anything in the days leading to Christmas, especially making Christmas cards, without mentioning the word Christmas, without a careful, screening process in place. It is next to impossible. When did this change take place? When did we, as a society, replace Merry Christmas with Happy Holidays?

I remember my Christmas concert, when I was a 5th grade student at Warren Street Elementary School, in Johnstown, New York. That year I have vivid memories of singing Silent Night, The Little Drummer Boy, and Away in a Manger, in a packed house of parents, teachers, and school board members, and no one gave it a second thought. No one threatened law suits, no one wrote a letter to the editor, and I am pretty sure the ACLU wasn’t parked at the front entrance to the auditorium.

Now, fast forward 20 years, to my child’s Christmas concert. The closest they came to a traditional Christmas song was Rudolph the Red nosed Reindeer. No mention of the word Jesus in the entire program, and he is the reason for the day. It is his birthday, for CHRIST’S SAKE!

What was included in the program was a song about a dradle, and a song about Kwanza. I am all for the idea of exposing my children to different cultures, but not at the expense of my morals and my beliefs, and the morals and beliefs that I want to instill in them, and according to the local past election results of that county, the majority shares those beliefs. You say exposure to culture, I say indoctrination.

One other area in which we are trying to disconnect with our Christian background would be Corporate America. I work for a National chain retailer, and in planning for our annual Christmas party last year, they had posted bulletins and signup sheets all over the non-public areas of the store, and according to our Human Resources department, local management had to be very careful to not mention the word Christmas in any of the bulletins, and not even in conversation. When asked by my store manager, why I hadn’t signed up for the Holiday Party, I told him I would be tied up at a Christmas party that evening.

Another place that my company had forgotten to mention Christmas was in their Black Friday newspaper ad. Merry Christmas was replaced with Seasons Greetings and Happy Holidays. The Nativity wasn’t present in any of our Christmas merchandise, and they had changed the name of Christmas Trees to Holiday Trees and our main competitor called their Christmas trees, Family trees.

What blows my mind away is the number 75. Of the dozens of studies that I have read, on the breakdown of religions in our country, I have never seen one that listed Christianity making up less than 75% of our population. If at least 3 out of every 4 Americans are Christian, then why do we make Christ or the very mention of his name, taboo? That is one part of the equation I have yet to figure out. I know the who, what, and where, but I am not clear on the why, or the how, for that matter. How can we, as a Christian society allow the minority to so stealth fully, pull the wool over our eyes, and indoctrinate us to the fact that the very mention of Christ’s name is offensive, yet our kids can still sing about dradles and Kwanza, but they can’t write Merry Christmas in a card to a wounded vet.

You want to know who is still being discriminated against in our society today. Well there you have it- Christians.