Will illegal immigrants take the stimulus jobs?

[Jaundice James]

...Greed is a powerful motivating force and these employers may be tempted to hire illegal immigrants, as they often do, for these labor-intensive jobs with the intention of saving money on labor and thereby increasing their bottom line. These projects are a potential gold mine for businesses big and small. Why would they waste that money paying high wages to Americans when they can get illegal immigrants to do the work for less, and without benefits? What makes us think these businesses will act in the same interest that the stimulus is intended? Greed, after all, did get us here...

...Fox News develops some clever phrase like “The Stimulagration Scandal” or “Stimugate” that they repeat over and over and over. And, like most things that conservatives introduce into the political lexicon, it gets picked up by the mainstream media. You hear it repeated on the Today Show, the Daily Show and the Tonight Show. America is good and pissed off, and Obama’s approval ratings plummet. He loses credibility and trust. He loses his political capital.

And that’s it. He’s done. Forget about re-election. And we can say goodbye to Progress...

http://www.examiner.com/x-1470-DC-Progressive-Examiner~y2009m1d25-Will-illegal-immigrants-take-the-stimulus-jobs


.

[The Wielding Truth]

1. Wow, another wrinkle. Government work is more authenticated.

Those jobs will be screened.

[Andy823]

3. They should be, but

That does not mean they will

[The Wielding Truth]

5. They will be. It will be run by an Obama administration. Have faith.

[elleng]

15. The 'jobs' will be all over the map;

who knows who will get them?

For example:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/26/AR2009012602232.html?hpid=topnews

[Jaundice James]

18. It needs to focus more on jobs. n/t

[justaregularperson]

21. Unfortunately there is some truth to this

Many of the projects will be work in construction industries. It should be creating construction jobs, but indeed when the money will be outsourced to small companies as part of the strategy, there will be a huge temptation to use cheap labor (ie, illegal immigrant labor).

That may seem OK. I mean what can it hurt when illegal immigrants here are also hurting? However, more illegal immigrants will pour across the borders. And fact is that we need to keep the stimilus as undiluted as possible, and keep the money in the country, for the benefit of all countries. Other countries will benefit when out economy is back on stable ground.

We need wording in the stimilus package to deal with this. Anyone know if it is there?

[Andy823]

2. That's a good question.

I know in my area that has been going on for some time. Employers have been cutting costs by hiring illegals who they do not have to pay benefits for. Works for the employer, but not to well for those who are legal, including many who came from Mexico and took the time to become legal citizens.

I really think there has to be some kind of system to make sure that this does not happen. There are millions of citizens who are out of work, to hire illegals in order to increase profits would not be helping the economy at all.

[patricia92243]

4. I also wonder if the materials to build will come from other countries??? If we are paying only

labor to build things, it is a losing proposition before it even gets started. If we supply our own steel, lumber, concrete, screws - whatever is needed - now that will really jump-start our economy.

[terisan]

6. Yes they will hire illegals. Big Business opposed to too many controls

[stillcool]

7. I wonder how those contracts willl be..

handed out. I hope KBR, Halliburton, Bechtel and other gobal American businesses who have made a fortune raping the United States are blocked from bidding. That said..I think that people that use threats about re-election to make their point are thugs.

[blue97keet]

10. Hope Tata and Infosys etc. are blocked too

from medical IT or our medical records end up in India.

[Azlady]

11. boy you got that right.... none of these jobs should be outsourced... NOT ONE!

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[TahitiNut]

12. "Their"??? Don't look now but your computer seems to have the dreaded Homonym Virus.

:shrug: It's hugh! Seriesly.

[devilgrrl]

13. They should all be sent to your mom's basement in Fresno.

:popcorn:

[Andy823]

14. Yes they are oppressed

And we need to help them, but we need to get our own economy in order first, and we can't do that if we allow all those people to come here and take the jobs meant for citizens of this country who are unemployed! I think there are other ways to help those oppressed people than by giving them all of our jobs so big corporations can make huge profits hiring them for less money, don't you?

[DUlover2909]

16. Welcome to DU.

I happen to agree with you that the situation in Latin America is bad and that the people there need assistance of some kind. On the other hand there is a distinction between a person that immigrates legally and one that does not. We have immigration laws in place for a reason. For our democracy to survive we must ensure that all of the laws are enforced equally. If we choose to change the laws then that is what our legislature can do. Until then, the laws are there and if someone breaks the law for whatever reason, they should be "taken care of" in the manner prescribed by the law. I think pot should be legal, but it's not. If I get caught with a joint, I will accept it and I will not scream, "I'm being opressed!"

[OhioChick]

9. Very Good Question. n/t

[Daveparts]

17. A Parasitic Relationship

The money sent home to Mexico by immigrants both legal and illegal is the second largest source of hard currency behind oil. After the collapse of the Peso in 1994 American banks began propping up the Peso. The loans from the American banks were backed with future Mexican oil production, so the oil in the ground is Mexican but once pumped is the Gringo’s.

The Mexican economy earns the contract price to the banks who then sell their interests to the oil companies and Mexico earns around $25.00 a barrel for oil that sells on the open market for twice that price.

86% of all foreign investment in Mexico is from the north and if the Mexican economy fails American investors will feel the pain first. A ruptured Peso means the value of the goods manufactured in Mexico falls, so how can the US support the Mexican economy? It is no accident that illegal immigration swells around the same time that NAFTA is passed in 1993

They could lend Mexico more money and push for reforms to promote a fairer society but that would mean American employers would have to pay higher wages and invest in costly environmental reforms. Or they could simply leave things the way they are and point to the North.

Did it ever strike you as odd how Republicans went from strong border supporters to compassionate supporters of illegal immigration? It’s a two fer and a no brainer it infuses hard currency into the Mexican economy and puts a downward pressure on wages in this country. A Republican social program, where the miserably poor help to finance the investments of the super rich.

A scenario that even Tony Soprano would envy but Tony is a fictional character and this is reality. Real suffering and real poverty courtesy of Capitalism so that those with more can have even more.

[getthefacts]

19. I'm always very concerned

... when I read postings scapegoating illegal/legal/undocumented immigrants. Illegal immigration did not cause the current state of America's economy; eight years of a terrible administration did that. I understand it is really easy to fall prey to unfounded fears when things go bad. This idea that illegals will come and steal American jobs has emerged in every crisis and with every immigration wave. It is like the story of the end of the world that never comes. If not the immigrants, the communists will eat our children, a radical muslim will detonate a bomb on the American map, code alert RED. The fact is that FOX is engineering the "OBAMA loves illegals" myth and people are already falling for it, including some of us here at DU.

[Still Sensible]

20. I wonder if Lou Dobbs started this rumor

[getthefacts]

22. And this is just the beginning

"GOP brings back anti-immigration rhetoric to fight SCHIP bill


I wrote yesterday about the impact of the SCHIP reauthorization on tobacco. Today, pro-immigration forces are picking up the ball and discussing just how anti-immigrant the GOP’s position on SCHIP is. America’s Voice, a rapid-response communications group that focuses on immigration, fired this out to the Internets today:

In the first test of the Republican Party’s new Latino outreach strategy, GOP leaders are reaching for their old talking points. As reported by National Public Radio today, Ensign and other Republicans are voicing strong opposition to provisions in the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) bill that would allow legal immigrant children to access health care without a five year waiting period. As Ensign put it: “It would seem to me that we are giving more incentives for folks to come to the United States, not just to participate in the American dream, but to get on the government dole. And I think this is exactly the wrong direction we should be going with this legislation.”


Link to blog:
http://blogs.creativeloafing.com/the941/2009/01/28/gop-brings-back-anti-immigration-rhetoric-to-
fight-schip-bill/

[Vattel]

23. I'd like to see some evidence

that giving illegal immigrants some of these jobs would hurt the economy. Other things being equal, I don't really care whether Joe or Jose gets the job.