If the pay was fair would you do the work the illegals do?

Question

You know how the big argument for keeping illegals are that they do the work average Americans wont do. However if the pay was fair (at least minimum wage, hazard pay, over time, ect) would you do the work they do?

Do you think some of the homeless and/or poor legal American citizens would do these jobs if the pay was fair as well?


I know when I was in high school I would done these jobs in a heartbeat. Fresh air, getting some sun, sweating, perfect for a growing teenager.

Answer 1

Yes, I have done and would do again, the work they do. Many, many Americans have and don't appreciate the repititious excuse that illegals only do the work that Americans will not do. It's simply not true. Teenage kids, the homeless, the poor, families that just need extra work beyond their full time jobs to survive, moms, legal immigrants....those jobs can and will be filled by those that should have them in the first place...legal immigrants and American citizens. Haven't so many of us even had jobs where we were underpayed or underinsured? Yes, but we still do it.

Answer 2

There are definitely SOME legal citizens who would do these jobs for minimum wage. However, unemployment in the United States is about 5%, or 15 million people total. A lot of those people are high-skilled people going through short periods of unemployment, and definitely wouldn't take a minimum wage job, because just looking around for a few months will lead to a much better job, and a lot of the others are physically unable to do hard manual labor. If there really are 20 million illegal immigrants, there's just no way that American citizens can pick up the slack. There's just too much of that kind of work to go around. High school students really don't help much because they can only work about 10 hours a week during the school year, so you need four of them for every illegal immigrant, and for a lot of the agricultural work, there aren't enough high school students living near the farms.

I would say that, best case, between getting high school students and the unemployed to do all those jobs they could and would, you might cut the number of illegal immigrants doing those jobs by about 5 million. In reality, though, it wouldn't work to solve the immigration situation. There will always be a demand for cheap labor, and people will find other ways to make use of the illegal immigrants if they keep coming in.

And as for the homeless, the vast majority are people with serious mental illness and/or drug problems. They are not normally people who are just out of work for a long time. These are people who can't hold down any job under any circumstances until they take care of much more serious issues.

The other issue that a lot of people ignore is that some of these industries are viable only because they can pay low wages for hard work. In some cases, the decision is not between an illegal immigrant and an American, but between an illegal immigrant and a person working in a foreign country. Raise the wages to something "fair" and the job goes overseas.

Answer 3

For the most part they pay more than their share of taxes except for the drug trafficking and if we legalized this too then we could make more money and stop fighting a losing battle. Illegals should not be here in the first place but they keep coming because Americans keep paying them to work. Since they for the most part are unskilled min wage workers they normally would be getting money back with deductions if they were here legally. The US Supreme Court ruled in 2009 that if they are using a false ID just for the purposes of work then it will not be a criminal ID theft charge. Just the social security fund last year had 9 billion dollars that was collected from illegal aliens and they will never get that back. This is from undocumented people working with false cards or someone else's card. This is the mismatched funds. They pay gas tax, sales tax, food tax, cig tax, beer tax and the list goes on. They pay rent for almost 3.7-4 million apartments or homes and this rent or house payment eventually pays property tax, much of which pays education taxes for schools. If they were legal they would get credits for their children but most of them don't file. There are a few thousand that have ITIN numbers and do file but this is not the same as a social security card. It allows them to legally pay taxes with their name but does not change their legal status. Rules of how home purchases were done made changes to the ITIN system so buying homes is not as prevalent as a few year ago. Arguing the point whether they should be here or not does Absolutely no good because they are here and we need to reform the system to keep better track of the criminals and ID them with a system that shares info from ICE, SSA, IRS and Police Agencies and a decent database for employment verification. I know this was a joke Beaners but hey they pay so legalizing them may not help us financially unless we put a cap on a certain amount of years before they could file their tax deductions etc....They could not legally get welfare for several years. I'm taking Spanish lessons now so I can communicate in my neighborhood and maybe be able to order coffee at Beaners.

Answer 4

They don't look for Americans to do the jobs. They look for cheap. And if you are American they expect you to do the jobs cheap.

As for the homeless doing the work. You are aware that many of them are mentally unstable incapable of doing work. Some are disabled, and unable to work. Drug users, and alcoholics that would never get to the job let alone remember they might have one to do. Non of which would be able to hold down a job for any length of time. And some of the poor are elderly, have been retired for years, and on a fixed income.

You might be able to get the younger poor to take the jobs though. But they are hard to get off the government handouts when they get on them. They don't understand that the more money they'll make working will cut them off some government programs. But as they keep working they become more independent from the government, and that money is made up in the wages they'll get. Some on the government teat, do not want to get off of it. Cause they too think American Tax payers owe them a living.

Answer 5

If the hotels and restaurants were paying a decent wage, then they wouldn't be hiring the illegals. Some people are under the assumption that the pay will go up for the illegals. No, the pay will go down as more and more flood into the country. They will drag down the wages for everyone.

Answer 6

Yes Americans already do the same kind of jobs that the illegals do. Illegals haven't cornered the market on any job category, not even farm work.

Answer 7

See first the Mexicans are sending money home . so 1 makes a 75.00 a day that's cheap most around here get 100 to 150.00 a day .7 Mexicans to a room cheap rent . so say his expenses are 200.00 a week . so that over 200.00 dollars a week he sends home . an American dollar is 7 time that of Mexican money , so he is banking 1400.00 dollars a week not bad . so that's over 72000.00 dollars a year in the bank and free U.S. heath benefit and education >

Answer 8

Today I rode fence, did repairs. I did this side-by-side with an employee who is American. He works for us because we pay decent wages. Others were hauling hay.
Farmwork isn't easy. But like other jobs, Americans readily do them when paid well.

Answer 9

I did all those jobs as a kid. My folks were dirt poor and we all had to work. I have done all of them over the years. What we need is a lot less handouts and a lot more pride. Also toss most of the regulations regarding youth working.

Answer 10

im tired of people saying that all illegals work below min wages..... NOT TRUE.... i know plenty that make way above min wages.... they make more than i do and im an office assistant at my own familys business!!!!

Most teenagers arent going to want to do hard manual labor.... why when they can go out with friends and party all the time or have easy jobs like jamba juice, starbucks, movies!!!!