My best response to “i” is to correct his/her assumption, “If you care for them so much you should let some move in with you. and make sure they dont get taken advantage of by the big bad employers.”, in that I have taken great measures (and yes, made sacrifices in my personal & professional life) to protect the rights of people on US soil.

Regarding i’s concern related to immigrants driving up the rental market costs, well since the Boise area has been experiencing an historically high apartment vacancy rate (with corresponding low rents – compared to the home ownership market), and since i feels that immigrants in the Boise area are everywhere – there’s only one conclusion that we can reach. Immigrants (documented or otherwise) are having a net positive impact on the local housing market.

And, i is right on target concerning the illegal behavior of employers who fail to withhold taxes from employees’ pay – paying cash under the table, sub rasa.

But since very few businesses/politicians/farmers could survive a crack down on such employer misbehavior – I suspect that our economy is far more reliant on low-wage earners than we will admit (especially those who aren’t protected from labor laws, and who fear involving the police when they are mistreatmented).

Undocumented workers are not the problem, their presence is only the symtom of a deeper social/economic disease. Unfortunately, this disease has no name and can only be described by circumscribing its general sentiment, it is our (and I include myself) inability to live up to our own ideals regarding the kindness with which we should treat our fellow human beings.

–You may not verify someone’s name and Social Security number until after you have offered him or her a job.

–Social Security will review usage of SSNVS to ensure that employers are using it for the proper purposes.

Do not use SSNVS to take punitive action against an employee whose name and Social Security number do not match Social Security’s records.
–A mismatch does not imply that the employer or the employee intentionally provided incorrect information.

–A mismatch does not make any statement about an employee’s immigration status and is not a basis, in and of itself, for taking any adverse action against an employee. Doing so could subject you to anti-discrimination or labor law sanctions.

Third party use of SSNVS is strictly limited to organizations that contract with employers to either handle the wage reporting responsibilities or perform an administrative function directly related to annual wage reporting responsibilities of hired employees.

It is not proper to use SSNVS for non-wage reporting purposes, such as identity, credit checks, mortgage applications, etc.

It might do us all some good, physically, mentally, emotionally and psychologically to get off our butts and do some labor each day. It did not hurt me. Then I got out of the service, out of college and got a “real” job sitting on my butt at a desk.

Another solution, beside “the solution is to pay more and get less”, is to get off our butts and do some manual labor each day. Easier said than done.

It is not too hard to hire illegals to work in Detroit! Go there and see.

Not an immigration problem?

Control the the borders, language and culture.

Yes, we have an employer and an economic problem.

I made 10 cents an hour when I was 10 years old chopping corn, thistles and sunflowers out of beans and chopping thistles and sunflowers out of corn.

The employer may withhold both parts of the social security taxes but that doesn’t mean that the employer sends those taxes to the social security administration. Guess who benefits and who doesn’t. Not the worker and not anyone collecting social security benefits.

280+million vs 11+ million = 269+million

At 5% sales tax how many goods would they have to buy just to cover the cost of sending one child to school. that would be over $100,000.00 in goods bought in one year.

And the very small amouny of SS tax they may get taken out (if they are not paid in cash) would not even come close to covering the cost if they ever made on to the SS system.

As far as rent. well they increase the rate all pay because they flood the rental market. and over crowd units.

If you care for them so much you should let some move in with you. and make sure they dont get taken advantage of by the big bad employers.

and dont worry about the jobs they do. the big bad employer will just have to pay a living wage to get the job done. I work in construction so don’t tell me its jobs We won’t do!

In a nation composed mostly of immigrants (the only “natural citizen” being an aboriginal Native American), I am constantly at a loss when someone uses the term “Illegal Immigrant”. My humble position is that the only illegality committed in the name of immigration is when a person is forced into America as a slave. Unfortunately this does still occur, and it is not just the white-slavery foisted upon some sex-workers.

The flow of goods across political borders in the current global market is expotentially increasing, facilitated by a none-to-judicious application of new trade laws.

Combine this with the relative fixity of the laborer, forcing them to choose between abject poverty and a life under an assumed identity in a foreign country, and you’ve hit upon the magic recipe for an immigration “problem”.

Canadians seem to take a much more enlightened approach. Since they understand that their current citizen population is aging, they see immigrants as the necessary influx of needed labor. Canadians view such immigration as a way to fill the employment ranks of the healthcare and service industries. Applying for, and recieving, citizen status in Canada is much easier than in the US because that government sees an immigrant as a potential citizen – not as a potential criminal.

As for deporting such workers from US soil – for what reason? For paying sales tax on all the goods they’ve purchased, for paying all the real estate tax they’ve paid through apartment rents, for paying into a social security system from which they will never benefit, for harvesting the vast majority of the fruits and vegetables we eat?

Sure, deport them. Then present them with a big fat reimbursement check for all the tax money they’ve contributed to a system that treats them as a social pariah.

By the way, I’m not an American citizen by birth – because I was born in a foreign county, to American parents, and this country’s laws required that parents like mine needed to file a special petition to officially decline their newborn’s citizen status. My young parents were ignorant of this law – not knowing the intricacies of this foreign county’s citizenship laws. I don’t even know how to speak the language of my “home” country, since I left before I was two years old. Sound familiar?

And my grandfather? He was born a US citizen in a small rural town in Wisconsin, into a household that only spoke Norwegian. He was beaten at school by his teachers if he ever spoke anything but English – uff da.