Wed
Feb 20 2008
03:57:pm

New laws that punish employers for hiring illegal immigrants seem to be doing what a border fence will never do.
At my place of employment, where we have legal contract workers from Mexico, we are seeing droves of people coming in looking for work. They are coming in groups of up to 10 and 12 people at a time, three or four times a day.
They have been let go from their former jobs because they cannot provide papers that are legit. We have never seen this many come to look for work, some as far away as Morristown. Of course we must tell them the same as everyone else. No legal papers, no job.
It is sad to see but I do agree this is a better and more humane way to discourage illegal immigration than a border fence across Indian lands and such.
These folks will leave Tennessee and seek work in other states where no such laws are in place, or return to their native country.
Still it is sad to see the desperation in their eyes, but we can do nothing but abide by the law.
It will be interesting to see how this affects businesses in the future when there is no cheap labor to make money off of.

Use the FedEx model

After 7 years of King George, our imigration policy still leaves us with folks needing labor and folks ready to work not being able to get together. Sounds about right.

How has the West used migrant labor for so many decades efficiently? Green cards, work visas or what?

I really don't know how they

I really don't know how they managed the labor in the west. Maybe it was so close to the border that workers would cross illegally, work a seasonal job picking fruit or something and then return home with some money to live out the rest of the year. Work visas to me are the best solution. If they do not return home on time they cannot get another visa sometimes for up to 10 years.
Our contract workers are completely checked out. If they have a record in Mexico or the USA they cannot get a work visa. Even a DUI may be enough to keep someone out. I am impressed with the workers I have known through this program. I know they are not drug dealers or rapists, or at least not convicted.
Most of you won't see it but many will suffer but most will just leave. That's the whole idea I think. In the spring we will start feeling the lack of labor for less desirable jobs.

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

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