I usually try not to get into politics, but watching Donald Trump give his nomination acceptance speech last night got me riled up. Among other topics, his discussion on immigration fueled a rage deep inside. In his speech he discussed the terror immigrants who have traveled to the u.s. have unleashed, he has normalized the stereo types that these immigrants are thieves, rapists and murderers.
Through my studies and personal experience a majority of these immigrants and migrants risk everything just to provide for their families, most cross the border with legal papers and those who don't still have someone (typically a legal American citizen) forging their papers for them to work on their farm. When you look at the problem of illegal immigration the problem isn't the immigrants themselves.
Without these immigrants working on farms, working for landscape businesses, contractors, builders and working in any kind of construction, what feeds us, shelters us, and helps us live a comfortable life just wouldn't exist as vastly as it does. When you tell us, "immigrants are taking our jobs!", you get us riled up and angry at the wrong people.... We are the ones giving up jobs. Lets face the facts how many of you would be willing to work in 90-100 degree heat, in the sun for 10+ hours a day 7 days a week, for meager minimum wage pay? Not many. The problem isn't the fact we don't have any jobs, the problem is that people are not willing to work in those brutal conditions, not when there are higher paying jobs, in air conditioned buildings.
Working in the greenhouse/garden center business I see it all the time, landscapers in the area can't seem to find many able bodied workers that are willing to put in the time and effort. Farm families just aren't big enough to have a single family run the farm they need help, and cheap labor is the only way they can afford it. People with degrees don't want to see their degree and money go to waste working long hours for small wages. Those on welfare (who are able bodied) don't want to give up their comfortable, paid for, life to work in a field, or get their hands dirty. Next time you want to call an immigrant a rapist or a murderer who is stealing your jobs, read the news and see how many young white males rape girls on college campuses and compare it to the number of immigrants who are on the news for rape. Look at the murder rate and see how many murders are committed by immigrant workers compared to U.S. born citizens. Then make your way to the market, walk around the produce section, I guarantee you a majority of the fruit and vegetables you see, were harvested by an immigrant, and without those immigrants, the shelves would look bare.
