From: Greg F.
Date: 10 Feb 09 - 08:57 AM

Sorry, but I gotta ask, John - with all of the problems currently besetting the U.S. of A., why is this relatively minor & largely inconsequential problem of illegal immigration such a bug up your ass anyway?

minor and inconsequential? i live with this "minor and inconsequential" problem every day, unlike 90% of you. i've lost my small business because of it, and my wages have been steadily going down because of it. at a union class last week, we were told that a wage and benefit package in manhattan was down to $22/hr,@ $7.50/hr for benes, that's 15. then you have to figure in u/c and workers comp. which brings it down to almost minimum wage. have i spent 37 yrs getting to the top of my craft to go back to an unlivable wage?
also, unlike the immigrants that y'all like to compare these people to, they aren't here to "live the american dream". most want to be paid cash, so they don't pay into our tax system or ssi system to maximaize the money they take back home when they go. but we're supposed to give them the benefits of that system?
on the point of we were all immigrants 2 or 3 generations ago. i have genelogical documentation of both sides of my family being here since the late 1600's. that's more like 20 generations. using that logic means even indians aren't "native", since they crossed the land bridge from siberia eons ago.
you know, if they weren't shit on in their countries that we have signed these"treaties" with they wouldn't come here. or if they fought and died to free their countries like my ancestors did in this one, this wouldn't be the problem it is.