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The rot in Alabama

OTHER OPINION: Immigration

Posted: November 7, 2011 - 10:02pm

Farmers in Alabama are in revolt against the state’s over-the-top immigration law, which is designed to hound illegal immigrants so that they move elsewhere. As it happens, a substantial portion of farm workers there, as in other states, are undocumented. In the farmers’ view, the law is depriving them of steady, experienced labor — and threatening to deal a lethal blow to crops throughout the state.
The uproar has exposed political fault lines within the Republican Party, whose vows of support for business have run headlong into its crusade to drive away illegal immigrants, on whom agribusiness relies. It’s also laying bare the nation’s hypocrisy over unskilled immigrants, whose legal entry into the country is blocked in most cases even though their labor remains much in demand.
Of the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the country, some 7 million are in the job force. The idea that they can be deported or replaced en masse with jobless U.S. workers is far-fetched. That’s the message that Alabama farmers have been giving their elected leaders, so far to little avail.
Alabama lawmakers insist that, by driving undocumented workers out, they will open jobs for Americans; the unemployment rate in the state is nearly 10 percent. But farmers say that jobless U.S. workers, mostly inexperienced in field work and concentrated in and around cities, are ill-suited and mostly unwilling to do the back-breaking, poorly paid work required to plant and harvest tomatoes, squash, cucumbers and other crops.
A federal court has stayed some parts of the Alabama law, such as a particularly obnoxious measure that requires school systems to collect information on the immigration status of students and their parents. But it has let stand other provisions, including one allowing police to demand documentation from suspected illegal immigrants who are pulled over in routine traffic stops. This has prompted some of the state’s estimated 120,000 illegal immigrants to pack up and head elsewhere.
— Washington Post

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minnesnowda
17067
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minnesnowda 11/08/11 - 08:51 am
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lakelander
708
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lakelander 11/08/11 - 09:57 am
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farmers

They will remember this when they vote again.

Cheyenne43
7900
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Cheyenne43 11/08/11 - 10:06 am
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Alabama

is one of those 'welfare' red states that gets more back from the federal gummit than it pays in (no income tax on low wages). Blue states end up subsidizing them. I wish these red states would learn to pull their own weight.

OkeyDokey
2703
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OkeyDokey 11/08/11 - 10:57 am
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Of course, we could never

Of course, we could never expect agribusiness to be forced to pay a living wage, could we?

Perhaps we could expect them to pay enough to entice some ill-suited city dwellers to come out and work and learn the skills required to do the job well.

Oh well....it's just cheaper in the long run to let Americans remain unemployed and allow illegal immigrants to come up and do the work for pennies on the dollar. Meanwhile, they cost us far more in special programming in schools for their kids, health care, housing, etc....

All so agribusiness can make a cheap buck by using cheap labor.

mission
306
Points
mission 11/08/11 - 12:12 pm
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"Farmers in Alabama are in

"Farmers in Alabama are in revolt..."

Proving once again that when the southern states tried to leave the Union in 1861 we should have just let them go. The old folks would still be retiring to Florida and we would have been
spared the agony of Lyndon Johnson and George Bush the Younger.

:-)

mav7770
3780
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mav7770 11/08/11 - 12:28 pm
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"Republican Party, whose vows

"Republican Party, whose vows of support for business have run headlong into its crusade to drive away illegal immigrants, on whom agribusiness relies."
Parents, get your kids off of x-box and Facebook and put em to work!

fishhead
5344
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fishhead 11/08/11 - 12:35 pm
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0

How many years have those 535

How many years have those 535 people making over $150,000/yr PLUS taxpayer subidized health care had to solve this growing problem? Why do we tolerate it?

Brittanicus
0
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Brittanicus 11/08/11 - 02:55 pm
0
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MAKE IT A PRIORITY TODAY! WE MUST MAKE E-VERIFY A MANDATORY LAW

U.S. Citizens and legal residents must confront the Republicans dominated House and insist on E-Verify, as part of Smith’s THE LEGAL WORKFORCE ACT’ (H.R.2885.) The ‘Ways and Means Committee led by Majority Speak John Boehner (R-OH) must adopt the Mandatory E-Verify Bill (H.R. 2885.) and should be bombarded by demanding voters, as never before. Reps. Chip Cravaack (R-Minn.), Tim Johnson (R-Ill.), Reps. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.V.) and Joe Walsh (R-Ill.), Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.) Rep and just yesterday John Sullivan (R-Okla.) are co-sponsoring House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith's Legal Workforce Act (H.R.2885), with new members who are rapidly joining this monumental bill. THIS IS THE TIME TO SUPPORT THE AMERICAN UNEMPLOYED WORKER. Go to any Search Engine or specifically GOOGLE and type NumbersUSA as there you can freely fax politicians, otherwise you can also locate them through this phone number at 202-224-312; the Congressional Switchboard.

The TEA PARTY is only a portion of the ordinary American people, who are insisting the law must change. We must stop the Liberal subversives with their, “political Correctness’ which is crippling this nation; curtail the hundreds of billions of dollars, going to subsidize pregnant women from other countries, who are draining our hospital delivery rooms for free. We must amend the instant citizenship for their children, as it is to intentionally get traction to stay in America. We must restrain Democrats, Liberals and Republicans from forcing unfunded mandates on taxpayers by more immigration policing laws in all 50 states. Our schools, hospitals, jails and prisons are full of illegal alien criminals that are draining each states treasury.

YOU’RE CALLS AND FREE FAXING IS MAKING AN UNHEARD OF DIFFERENCE. HOUSE MEMBERS ARE CAVING-IN TO THE PERSISTENT PATRIOTIC AMERICANS BOMBARDING THEIR OFFICES.

Tuesday, November 8, 2011 currently has 100 sponsors, 58 co-sponsors, with only 43 House members to go.

It will mean no more illegal aliens on payroll, with eventually millions leaving the country and opening jobs for American workers of every type. Farmers, Dairies, meat and poultry industry must be held accountable who are using foreign workers for big profits. They need to pay good wages and offer benefits, to get good, decent workers. Displaced by ICE raids and audits, illegal workers are leaving in large numbers; replaced in long lines by jobless Americans and legal residents. After the purge the administration can then enact an alien workers program, perhaps based on the Second World War ‘Bracero’ , but with a stringent tracking system and, that would be activated for every tourist, student and other who enter America. In addition all new statutes will be based on the 1986 Simpson/Mazzoli bill and that would include an overhaul for all new legal immigrants. Only professional or the highest skilled workers need apply, not the less skilled and certainly no entry to any more economic illegal aliens that is taxpayer supported.

Let the Special Committee that is charged to reduce the near 15 Trillion dollar deficit, to introduce legislation and look into the illegal immigration invasion. Curtail the Department of IN-Justice from further ardently intimidating Arizona, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, Indiana and states that are under constant arrivals of illegal aliens they are forced by law to support.

In conclusion—every law abiding American should be watchful of Liberal progressive tricks in our electoral law. Hopefully TEA PARTY members will be vigilant in present in gubernatorial and state legislative elections in Louisiana, Mississippi and West Virginia will be electing governors. Liberals specifically and radical groups have proven they have intentionally overlooked illegal aliens and even legal immigrants voting in our elections. Further-- 578 state legislative seats are available, with the majority of these in Louisiana, Mississippi, New Jersey and Virginia where the fate of politicians are in the hands of voters. Every American state should provide a website to report this serious wrongdoing, as it is undermining the basic foundation of the citizen’s right to vote. Leftist Democrat Congressman called Keith Ellison from Minnesota’s wants to impose on his state a slack election system and also on the rest of this sovereign nation.

wolfg1
601
Points
wolfg1 11/08/11 - 03:33 pm
0
0

Today I wasn't even asked for

Today I wasn't even asked for any ID to vote. I just told them my name, and they read off my address. I told them that was correct, and I signed in.

lakelander
708
Points
lakelander 11/08/11 - 04:40 pm
0
0

well,

If someone else comes and says the same thing, they will be turned away and reported for trying to vote as you. My township knows every frequent voter and doesn't ask either. They just open the book to the right name.

lakelander
708
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lakelander 11/08/11 - 04:45 pm
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brittanicus

That is some crazy post...the phone number is missing a digit. It has some gross spelling and painful grammar errors. Who wrote it? You must be from some banana republic, because I would hope you aren't an American. Are you sitting in a coffee shop in Nigeria trying to sell us something?

Cheyenne43
7900
Points
Cheyenne43 11/08/11 - 05:20 pm
0
0

Naaah,

just your normal tea-sack ranter.

HaroldMay
0
Points
HaroldMay 04/24/12 - 04:41 am
0
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The state and their lawyers

The state and their lawyers seem quite bent on driving the illegal immigrants out of the state. Though it will be faced by opposition by those farmers who need that cheap labour, there are also plenty of others who support this decision. The unemployment rate in the US is steadily dropping, and I wonder if this law had any thing to do with it.

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