How should we deal with the farm picker shortage?

Folks, Calm down... It is like this, we pay taxes, we should have rights too. I amke a decent living and try to do everything right. I made a mistake on my taxes in 03 and now I get a letter from the IRS saying they are going to levy on my property. What gives. They going to take my home to give to the illegals. They mistake was in adding. They just caught it. It was less than $2000 dollars. I will happily pay it. But they are saying with interest and penalties it is now $10, 999.03. Hell I do not havethat kind of money but then again I work hard for a living and have two employees who depend on me. So they put me out of business and two families suffer as well as mine. Send the illegals home and lets help ourselfs first and get this country squared away then we can worry about the rest of the world.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Illegal immigrants to the United States cost the federal government over $10 billion a year, but that figure would increase almost threefold if they were granted legal status, according to a study released on Wednesday.

The study by the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington think-tank which advocates slowing legal immigration and clamping down on illegal migration, measured the amount of revenue illegal immigrants provide through taxes against the government services they and their families consume.

There are an estimated 10 million illegal aliens in the United States.

"Households headed by illegal aliens imposed more than $26.3 billion in costs on the federal government in 2002 and paid only $16 billion in taxes, creating a net fiscal deficit of $10.4 billion, or $2,700 per illegal household," Steve Camarota, author of the report.

These costs, derived from Census Bureau figures, include Medicaid, which provides medical insurance for the poor, other emergency medical treatment, food assistance programs and the federal prison system, where roughly 17 percent of inmates are illegal immigrants.

They did not include costs to local and state governments which would push the deficit much higher, Camarota said.

Earlier this year, President Bush proposed a guest worker program that would allow some of the nation's illegal aliens to acquire legal guest worker status. Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry has proposed granting an amnesty for most illegal immigrants who have been in the United States for at least five years.

GREATER COSTS

But the report said legalizing illegal aliens would vastly increase their costs. More would pay taxes but because the majority are poor and hold low-paying jobs, this would be vastly outweighed by the increased government welfare services they would consume.

Camarota said the only effective way to lighten the fiscal burden was to enforce immigration laws by stepping up border patrols and reducing the number of illegal aliens in the country. At the moment, laws making it illegal to hire illegal immigrants are almost totally ignored.

Many employers would likely fight such steps because they rely on illegal migrants as a source of low paid labor.

Immigration advocates criticized the report for ignoring the human side of the equation and failing to suggest any constructive solutions.

"Our legal immigration system is broken. Family members have to wait years to gain legal entry to this country to be reunited. It can take 10 years to get a legal visa for a spouse," said Michele Waslin, a senior analyst for the National Council of La Raza, a major Hispanic organization.

"We need comprehensive legal immigration, which includes legalizing undocumented immigrants who can prove they are law abiding and pay their taxes," Waslin said.

Georgetown University immigration expert Lindsay Lowell said U.S. immigration law had helped create an underprivileged underclass of low income workers that helped employers but imposed substantial costs on the rest of society.

There are plenty of school kids who will gladly go work the truck patch, just like we did when I was a kid.

I'm calling it out and saying it is what it is-When other immagrants came to this country, they did not LOWER our rate of pay like the mexicans do!!!The illeagls (mexicans)-(they make it so that u.s. citizens are forced to take a low paiyng job-even with an education or degree) They did not drive nice cars and have nice homes, and then live off the govenrment--like mexicans do. They come over here and don't pay taxes, bleed our welfare systems dry and then say they are poor, but get behine these same people at the post office, and they are sending well over $500.00 or more back to mexico. These are the only immagrants to lower the rate of our pay, and it screws us people who do pay taxes!!!! When we try to do good for ourselves, were taxed to death because of them bleeding our systems dry and NOT PUT ANYTHING back into our ecomomy(not paying taxes,going to health departments, ect.), then they demand stuff be given to them for free-HELLO-I'm embarrassed to say that I live in a country where this behavior is rewarded and the people who do the right thing are punished and have to pay for them when they refuse to pay for us!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
1 other thing, they have spread so much disease in america, by there 3rd world ways, and refusal to adapt to our culture and ways of hygene. If they (tried) to act like us they would completely be under the radar, and unoticed. They choose to draw attention to theirselves, so when people like me see the stupid commments they make-they don't have a leg to stand on-THEY ARE WRONG-when they crossed that border without a passport-they were automaticly a FELON-why is our government alowing felons to recieve government assistance???????? When leagle citizens are the ones treated like the felons and can't get help when they need it-when we make a comment about it we are called racist-THERE IS NOTHING IN THIS WORLD BETTER THAN TRUTH!!!And if the mexicans don't like it-then that proves they do not want to become american citizens-they are quick to call out on us about racial slurs, when this problems comes up. This is not a racial issue-like they use to avoid the real problem they know they are causing!!!!!!! I think our government needs to enforce a law--if anybody is living off government assistance and you continue to reproduce like gremlins-our government needs to put a limit of how many chilren our system will pay for. Because most of these people just sit at home making babies, for you and I to pay for!!!!!
AND IF YOU DON'T AGREE WITH ME YOU ARE NOT AMERICAN AND YOU ARE ON THEIR SIDE. I can't even have a family of my own because of these people I have to pay for!!!
It would be totaly different, if the would take that money they send back to mexico and put it into our ecomomy, since they clam to be happy to be here-people would not be angry about this problem!They want to be Americans but they don't and won't pay for like the rest of us do-they think we are just suppost to give it to them!!!!!

We have become a welfare state People are paid not to work. It seems so strange that the illegals can run to gammet to get here, yet they manage to find housing and jobs, yet the so called homeless can't find those same jobs. No need to ask why. There is constant complaining because the kids have nothing to do, that being the reason they commit crimes. Once in the past, there were buses that transported inner city kids to the farms to work. Now because of the child labor laws, even the teens who would work aten't allowed to. So now the voters want change...well I think it's coming, also I think we aren't going to appreciate it when it happens, brace yourselves, it's bound to get worse.

I agree put the non violent prisoners to work. Make them work for what we the tax payers give them. It also makes sense to allow teenagers to work the fields to, because after all they have nothing to do right now besides run the streets beings the age limit for most jobs is 18. I have a 16 yr. old son who would love to work but has been hitting brick walls because of his age. But he is also 6'4" and about 225 lbs. so I think he could handle himself.

Some of the workers already here should get 1 year green cards which would be renewed only with proof that they worked in the fields each year, with no path to citizenship. If they get caught with an expired green card and they aren't headed to the border they go to prison and can never return to the country for any reason.

Is there some reason that the American people cannot be farm pickers???? Is that job so beneath us?? I bet if people knew how to get the job, there are people who would gladly work! Why do we need to have more immigrants to do work that we are perfectly capable to do?? I just don't understand that at all.......

The farm worker shortage is a myth, a fabrication contrived by the "open border" alliance... their distortions enthusiasticly advanced and promoted by the pro-amnesty, liberal media.

Farmers that pay a livable, American wage have no shortage of willing workers. Those that don't or can't still have legal solutions in the form of H1-B visas which allows farmers (and certain other occupations) to hire foreign workers when jobs cannot be filled with American workers or other legal US residents.

Traditionally these are jobs that Americans preformed until forced out by declining wages directly attributable to an over abundance of cheap, illegal labor.

It is also a myth that if they paid a livable wage, lettuce would be $5.00 a head. Labor cost for farmers in the US averages 6% - 8%. If they paid workers $20.00 an hour your lettuce price would increase less than 10 cents a head. Most would gladly pay this for it is far less than the cost of illegal immigration.

While it is true that most people come to the US for a better future, we must limit the number of people who come here annually to a sustainable amount. If we didn't do so, America would soon be no different than the country's people are so desperate to leave. We have immigration laws for a reason, and just because you don't like it or don't agree with the number of peopple we choose to allow to enter, does not mean that the "law is broken".

I would like to know why Mexicans and South Americans feel they are more deserving of US visa's than those people in China or India who have been on waiting list for years. Just because you are close enough to sneek across the border (not swim an ocean) does not mean that you should get special treatment.

I am so sick of people thinking we need illegal workers or migrant workers to do a job. We have enough paid workers that don't work, I apologize for being cryptic, so I will make my point, we have a bunch of people on the public dime (welfare, unemployment, or some other social handout) these are your workers, they have been paid already it is time they worked for it, so simply I suggest spending that money on a bus and fuel and ship down the (so called jobless and social vultures) and put them to work, if they refuse simply stop the welfare and social handouts. This resolves both issues, it keeps our food safe and a job for a needy individual and keeps our country from suffering from more vultures that plague our system and don't contribute, follow the rules, or assimilate into society.

but if you truly want to keep illegal people out of this county...
1) Get rid of the anchor baby laws
2) Start viewing our laws as they pertain to citizens of this country not to people that are here illegally.
3) Those that are not citizens have no rights, not in this country, if they want rights they can ask thier governments in thier country, and improve thier situation there.
4) I bet if you killed thier children at birth or better yet denied all medical and social programs and sent them back it would stop real fast.

Have prisoners work on the farm. (non violent offenders) Also Juvenile offenders (non violent)

I HAVE AN IDEA....WHY NOT PUT PRISONERS AND JUEVENILE DELINQUENTS IN THE FIELDS DOING THE WORK. THE PRISONS ARE OVERCROWDED WITH A BUNCH OF LAZY PEOPLE AND SPOILED TEENS EVERYWHERE NEED A GOOD DOSE OF MANUAL LABOR TO REMIND THEM HOW GOOD THEY HAD IT AT HOME, AND INSTALL SOME WORK ETHIC IN THEIR LAZY, VIDEO GAMES & MTV LIVES... PLUS IT WOULD BE CHEAPER FOR FARMERS, BECAUSE THEY ARE WORKING OFF THEIR DEBT TO SOCIETY.

AND FOLKS, INSTEAD OF POSTING CRITICAL REMARKS, TRY PRODUCTIVE ONES INSTEAD. IDEAS INSTEAD OF CRITICISM.
NICKY G FOR PRESIDENT IN 2008 (lol)

When I was in high school teenagers are the ones who worked in the fields in order to buy their car when they turned 16 or their school clothes or have money for the summer.
Now, teenagers have no idea what it is like to do hard manual labor because their parents give them everything and think that it is okay for them to set in front of the TV and play video games. I would like to see our teenagers doing this again, to teach them to respect money and to help build moral character.

This is just a part of the whole problem facing America today. As a nation, we are too worried about the political correctness of all aspects afforded individuals who are in our country, whether an illegal alien, a convicted criminal, 2nd & 3rd generation welfare recipients, or even legal nationalized citizens. USA has lost its autonomy! We have described our country as a "melting pot" but we now cater to the specials needs of all cultures to the point of causing hardships on each city and town in America. As much we want to be the provider and not witness suffering, government does not have the never ending supply of financial resources that are required to meet the demand and to keep taking from each tax paying individual more and more every year will never make the wrong decisions right.
In the words of Teddy Roosevelt from a 1907 speech, "In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin.

But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all.

We have room for but one flag, the American flag....We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language...and we have room for but one sole loyalty, and that is a loyalty to the American people."

I completely agree with the quote above. How can we have a shortage of farm pickers if we are dealing with record numbers of immigrants into our country. Do these new immigrants have other ways to gain money besides working for it like I do? We already know that the 2nd & 3rd generation welfare families don't work for it. The answer is CHANGE in how things are run in this country! STOP giving away everything that is hard earned to the ones who least deserve it and maybe they will see the value in becoming a contributing member of our society when eventually they are between the rock and a hard place. MAKE Americans earn a living, whether being a farm picker or any other jobs that need to be filled and pay those working individuals a pay scale that is realistic for survival. If you want to live in the USA to gain a better life, then truly become an American, for America, loyal to America, and proud to be American! This concept also applies to the 2nd & 3rd generation welfare recipients who always take and never give back. I have always worked hard, paid my taxes honestly, and am proud to be American and in a position to help others in need. But if the line of so called needy is long enough to wrap around the world more than once, guess what? I will be the needy one!

I will grow my own food. Most people eat junk anyway.

I just read in the paper yesterday that a congressman was complaining of the horrible wages these poor illegals are forced to take, and compared it to slavery! He proposed that they raise the $12 per hour the tomato pickers in Florida were being paid to $24 per hour.

What about the enslavement of us poor American workers, some of whom volunteered to give our lives for our country and our fellow citizens, who had to pay not only any tuition at all, but out of state tuition, (which is also being proposed to be waived for illegals), work full time while in school, (causing grades to suffer), and then work multiple jobs after graduation, because the media outlets don't pay as much as illegal immigrant tomato pickers?

Perhaps some heartbroken congressman will propose they double our salary so we don't have to work 3 jobs and drive 20 year old vehicles?

Guess what. There are no jobs that Americans won't do.
There might be wages they can't afford or won't work for, but those are apples and oranges. (intended).

CLOSE THE BORDERS! There will be plenty of American workers to bring in the crops for a fair price, and the "slavery" wages currently being paid illegals would be a step up for some of us. That's the real travesty.

Take the lazy sorry people that are able to work off of food stamps and welfare.Maybe they will get hungry and go to work. then the mexican will not have a job and go home. They are here doing what we are to sorry to do.

Pay a decent wage and you wouldnt have to worry about legals or illegals..PAY the AMERICAN PEOPLE...we are suffering from the economy.
I am a single mom and have kids with medical conditions, they are denied any medical help. Quit supporting illegals and take care of the ones who pay taxes.

RAISE the wages you cheap SOB's.. Become an asset to the economy instead of a liability.. By the way how many of you farmers already are subsidized?

I would GLADLY pay a bit more for my food products then trying to save a nickel on a head of lettuce..

I bet of the subsidies were removed you farmers would find ways to live, even pay a wage for your employees to live on and in the long run it would be less costly then we, the taxpayer subsidizing your illegal labor force with all the welfare we give them..

Actually the farmer could be an enemy of this country..Thought just struck me!!!!

I AM TIRED OF MY TAXES BEING GIVEN TO MEXICAN FAMILIES SO THEY CAN BUY BETTER FOOD THAN I CAN. THEY EAT BETTER, DRESS BETTER, AND HAVE BETTER HOUSES AND CARS THAN AMERICANS. FOOD STAMPS GALORE AND SOMEONE BORN HERE AND IS REALLY IN NEED CANNOT GET HELP, ONLY FOREIGNERS; ILLEGAL AT THAT CAN GET HELP AND BETTER JOBS.