That’s the number of immigrants that entered the United States from 1901-1921 — more than 15 million into a country of just 100 million people over 21 years.
What’s the big deal with 12 million illegal immigrants in a country of 300 million today?
NewMexiKen isn’t saying it isn’t an issue. Let’s just get a little historical perspective on it.
(Photo of sign on Interstate 5 between Los Angeles and San Diego.)
Well, in the years 1901 to 1921 the nation’s industrial base was growing at an astounding pace and could easily absorb workers by the millions. Today our industrial base is shrinking. And even with the red-hot industrial expansion of the early 20th century working conditions for the lower classes were appalling. Subsistence wages were all that most people could hope for. Health and safety concerns did not exist in that culture. The workplace was hostile and unforgiving.
Then over the course of a couple generations a whole lot of people made great sacrifices and rebelled against the status quo. A lot of people lost their lives fighting to improve the standards of living for all Americans.
Eventually people were able to organize unions which in turn gained political clout until they put that clout to work and laws were passed to ensure that everyone would be ensured the right to a minimum wage, the right for overtime pay for hours worked outside the normal shift, the right to expect to have a safe working environment, and the right to work free of harassment.
Even still none of those goals have ever truly been fully realized, and yet it is undeniable that by the 1960’s the average American working class family was exponentially better off than the average turn of the century working class family.
Sadly the average working class family has been steadily loosing ground since the 1970’s. Today a bread winner working a minimum wage job can be ensured a life of poverty for their family. But even minimum wage jobs are increasingly difficult to find. Why? Because there is a seemingly inexhaustible supply of illegal workers who are quite happy to work at unskilled jobs for less than minimum wage, and are often willing to work overtime hours for straight time pay, and are reluctant to complain about or report on unsafe working conditions, or hostile work environments.
For millions of unskilled American workers it is growing critically difficult to find unskilled jobs. On top of that they are constantly told through the media that illegal aliens are only working jobs that American workers won’t do. That is a colossal fallacy that just about makes my blood boil. There are so many jobs that historically paid well for hard work that are now staffed almost exclusively by illegal aliens.
Don’t believe me? Go to a large construction job with a 20 or 30 sheet rockers. If you find an American he is the general foreman. I guarantee that almost all the others are illegal Latinos. The same goes for other trades and industries. In states that have no licensing for tradesman it is now common to find illegal aliens working as plumbers, electricians and sheet metal workers, jobs that have historically paid high wages.
It is beyond me how anyone can claim that illegal immigrants have not driven down the level of wages for all these jobs.
So I pose two questions. The first is this. Why can’t a job that requires hard work but not much skill command a decent living wage? Supply and demand? Well there is a huge supply of cheap labor as long as we condone using illegal aliens and allow employers to do so with impunity.
The second question I have is this. Why can’t American employers staff their positions with legal immigrants? There are millions of aliens in this country working legally. Isn’t that preferable. Then we know they are paying their taxes and those workers know they have recourse to file grievance when treated unfairly.
Polls have shown that affluent Americans are all for opening to doors to all immigrants. And why not? It’s a large pool of cheap labor to baby sit their children, build their houses, butcher their meat, tend their yards, and clean their homes.
These polls have also shown that poor working class Americans are experiencing a lot of resentment towards people they say are driving down their standard of living by competing unfairly for their jobs.
I say we need to help the people on the low end of the economic ladder a lot more than we need to help the people on the upper end.
I don’t see the need for any new legislation. I see an enormous need to strictly enforce laws that are already on the books.
As a man who has worked in construction my entire adult life, I see this firsthand and I believe that this issue is a very real problem that is having a very detrimental affect on the standard of living of millions upon millions of American workers.