I'd vote for Alt13
Will An Immigration Deal Get Done?
- Thread starter Stoked
- Start date
I'd vote for Alt13
My daughter’s soccer coach is from Liverpool, England. He’s lived in this country legally for years. His current work visa expired. Well before it expired, he began the process of applying for permanent residency. They’ve flat out denied it to him thus far. He’s been here legally for years, working the entire time, paying taxes, coaching soccer. Because of the ******** that our current process is; he had to quit his job, quit coaching soccer, and move out of state. It was either that or go back to England. His fiancée took a job in San Diego that she had earlier decided to turn down (turned it down because things were great here and they decided to stay) because he had to move anyway. He’s hired the best immigration attorney around who also said that there was basically nothing to be done but play the governments ******** games.
Our immigration system is completely and totally messed up.
Our immigration system is completely and totally messed up.
And when he gets married it will take him several years and thousands of dollars to gain citizenship. That's the most absurd part of this whole fiasco IMO.
If everyone who was living here illegally was granted citizenship tomorrow your life wouldn't change one bit and theirs would improve immensely.
So, of course, it's impossible.
So, of course, it's impossible.
RandyForRubio
Well-Known Member
**** man, are you trying to bankrupt farmers?
I don't even get paid $30/hr. And we don't pay anybody $7/hr. The minimum for our area if you're going through the gov't (and we do, bc we like to be legal) is $11.xx/hr, plus lodging, plus healthcare, plus food.
To add on that, from my experience. Since we get our workers through the gov't, if any local worker goes to job services and says they want to work on our farm, we are required to hire them. Do you know how often that happens? Maybe, if I'm lucky, we get one person a year. They typically last a week or less. And I live in a rural place! The local people don't want these jobs. Anyways, it is possible to hire migrant workers without hiring illegal workers. The only time we had a guy who couldn't come was because he was in Mexico illegally, they caught him, and sent him back to his own country.
I've never understood why it's so damn hard for people to become legal in this country. If they want to be here (for whatever reason), let them do it legally. The government can always revoke visas/green cards from criminals and send them home.
I honestly think people don't measure their own happiness in a vacuum; they measure it relative to others. So if other people are made miserable they rise in their own relative happiness index. It's really perverse.
Zombie
Well-Known Member
Considering the amount of xenophobic anti immigrant sentiment coming from certain factions it shouldn't be that surprising. America First and all that.
Immigration law in this country is similar to drug laws in the sense that our policies are wildly different than public support would suggest they should be.
The Thriller
Well-Known Member
Yes.
An immigration deal will be had in the next month or so.
Dreamers will be given something close to amnesty. But democrats will bend over and offer billions to pay for that ridiculous wall that Donald promised Mexico would pay for. Why don't his supporters EVER call him out on that? And for the life of me, why aren't democrats raking him over the coals for that ridiculous promise? Republicans got so much mileage over the, "you can keep your doctor" phrase, why don't democrats give repubs a taste of their own medicine? Sad
An immigration deal will be had in the next month or so.
Dreamers will be given something close to amnesty. But democrats will bend over and offer billions to pay for that ridiculous wall that Donald promised Mexico would pay for. Why don't his supporters EVER call him out on that? And for the life of me, why aren't democrats raking him over the coals for that ridiculous promise? Republicans got so much mileage over the, "you can keep your doctor" phrase, why don't democrats give repubs a taste of their own medicine? Sad
The whole thing is a very complex economic problem. First off, I don't know why you're crying about farmers since they make, on average, about $50,000 more than the average US household. That average includes all the 40 % of farms that are "gentleman ranches" that are nothing more than tax evasion and drag that average way down. On the other hand, there is the economic issue of raising wages which will push one of America's greatest export industries out of the country. We've already seen this with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers in Florida gaining wage increases that pushed tomato production to Mexico. Then you have to get political and start talking about trade tariffs (which with a massive pay increase Mexico should agree to instantly as the remittances would be huge) and then get more political about the problem of one state enacting a rule that makes their growers and ranchers noncompetitive with other states. After that, you have to get into the border security issue that some farmers make a competitive advantage of by hiring undocumented immigrants (yeah Trump haters, law abiding farmers and ranchers have a valid complaint here about border security). Any bill would also have to include product specific regulations.
People may scoff, but that's a pretty damn good compensation package for someone from a poor country. You are literally raising people out of poverty, so big ups for that.
Average Mexican household income is something like $12,000. That's average. Some of the poorest areas make no more than $5.00 per day. They also work over 500 more hours per year than the average American. You are providing a seasonal job for a father who can make more in six months than many Mexicans make in 2.5 years. Add in the food savings and a willing man can send home just half of his annual salary to live a typical Mexican lifestyle.
RandyForRubio
Well-Known Member
I'm not sure comparing farmers to the average household is fair. You should compare it to the average business, after all, a farmer is a business owner. I'm not complaining about how much I make, I think farmers are doing just fine, but we could be doing a lot better. Typically when prices rise in the grocery store, we don't see it. In fact, you'll start to see prices rise soon. The new log book rules (ELD) is going to cause prices to rise at grocery stores, and it's going to make it more expensive for a farmer to pay for the freight. So we'll probably see less money going out because of it, and it all adds up. But hey, we'll still make a profit. I'm not that worried...I just don't want to make it worse, and $30/hr wages is just plain ridiculous, and you know it.
The Mexican's we get never complain...heck, most of them have been coming for 14+ years, and now we're starting to get their sons coming in. They're essentially family to us. It sucks because they're away from their families for a long time, but they do get paid well compared to their country members. Unfortunately, a lot of them don't get treated as well by other employers. I've heard some horror stories from the government inspectors (yes, all the houses, etc get inspected by a government official). While I would like for them to be able to be legalized, it also doesn't benefit me. We're not busy in the winter at all, whereas in the spring/summer/fall we're working 60-90 hour weeks...meaning, I can't afford to keep 10 migrant workers full time, year round. If they were to be legalized, I would probably lose my hired help, which would suck because I'm the reason they're here. At the same time, I want them to have the best possible lives for their families. It is a difficult situation. I know this isn't really what you're talking about, but I felt like adding it on.
It's not just plain ridiculous. I've wrote several times the example of how raising tomato prices by a mere penny per pound would raise pickers out of poverty and you would never notice it in your grocery bill. The FFP got a bunch of major corporations who control the tomato (and potato) industries (McDonalds, Wallmart, Taco Bell) to agree to pay pickers an extra penny per 32 pounds, or $0.0003125/lb. Upping that wage another 6 or even 9/10,000 of a dollar per lb is not going to hurt anyone but it would raise picker wages by $20-30/day. Upping it to $.01/lb would pay pickers on the low end somewhere in the $30/hour range while nobody would notice the increase in their grocery budget if it were uniform, and that difference isn't enough to displace American farming to Mexico or anywhere else. Many growers would also benefit because we could get rid of many of the various oversite taxes while also getting rid of the research and paperwork headaches involved with figuring out all the various laws like H-2B, or wasting time on housing inspections and keeping track of certifications.
The milk production industry could also benefit from something like this. After the mega-producers tack on a $0.05 surcharge per gallon then all the small family farms with only 30 cows or so would see a nice bump in pay.
The key is having it uniform.
The milk production industry could also benefit from something like this. After the mega-producers tack on a $0.05 surcharge per gallon then all the small family farms with only 30 cows or so would see a nice bump in pay.
The key is having it uniform.