This is not the early 1900s. The US is not an industry based economy any longer.

An article from 2 days ago discussed how Americans are becoming homeless because they can’t find jobs. On 2 April, we had an article discussing how illegal aliens were stealing over 300 hundred jobs from Americans in the meat packing industry. .

Why didn’t the author post his source for the following statement: "according to the authors, poor Latinos in the South are routinely cheated out of their earnings and denied basic health and safety protections”? He posted sources for his other assertions. Could it be because only is pertaining to illegals? Illegals know they are breaking the law. I have no sympathy for an Illegal who was cheated out of pay.

America’s immigration policy needs to reflect the needs of Americans. This is not Mexico’s welfare system. They need to take responsibility for the welfare of their citizens and not hand out comic books (because the Illegals are illiterate) detailing how to violate American law.

“bring the unauthorized [illegal] out of the shadows and eliminate the unregulated shadow economy”

Please do just that.

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Poor white people aren't any better off than the Latinos in the south. Or probably in the north, either, for that matter.

I have no sympathy for the illegals. I have no sympathy for H2B immigrants, either. All the menial jobs around here that Anglos used to have are now filled by Mexicans who work cheaper, and often off the books. Let them go home, and let US Citizens have their jobs back.

This whole immigration issue is going to turn me into a libertarian or conservative...

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Go Home. You dont belong in the USA. Nations are different. We are not all the same. That is good. 99% of the people in the world agree with this common sense statement. Only a few deluded save the world liberals believe We Are The Same and USA is the Same as Mexico or El Salvador, etc. Can we have Mr. Putin come to the US on a lecture tour to remind us of how normal nations behave? Illegal aliens have no "rights". In their own nations they have "rights'. That is good. Take a couple of billion from Geinter's bailouts and charter nice airconditioned buses to take Mexican illegals and their Central American and Caribbean compadres home. As for the Indians and Pakistanis, they can fly themselves home. Heck, they can afford to send American families on vacation! As for the Israeli "dual" citizens, put them in Gitmo(oops, closed?). OK put them in that Arizona jail Sheriff Joe runs. The Israelis should be familiar with those camps, they run a few for Palestinians, after all.

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All the bigoted, ignorant remarks based on Faux News propaganda manufactured mindsets! Embarrassing! Please educate yourselves people before you run your mouths, or keyboards. I suspect the posters above have not been in the job market long and are utterly trapped in the rat race that the puppeteer masters have arranged for them. The problem is way deeper and darker than immigration. There are no jobs because the so called great American free-market system is bankrupt morally and financially, since it kills its own market in its throes to maximize profits, which it usually does by cutting labor costs. That means, hire the cheapest, pay the lowest, cut benefits, and outsource the jobs if possible to where you can get the job done for cheaper than dirt.

Don’t you people get it? It’s the system not the immigrants. And the same system, since it’s globalized now, is what sends migrants the world over to where they believe they might make a living, feed their families and not starve because it is wrecking the planet through and through. U.S.A., U.S.A., U.S.A.! Really? Wake up America and evolve!

Aaah maybe its just a few bozos here.

For an antidote to Faux News: evolumental.com

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With welfare and unemployment being sucked dry what are we supposed to with Mexico's problem?

We have plenty of legal citizens across the board from all walks of life who are poor and are getting poorer. At the moment its becoming a hell for legal citizens with an ever growing influx of people losing their jobs and homes daily. I like most legal citizens am more concerned about my own situation and have no room to worry about people (illegal immigrants) who were not forced to come here.

It appears that the goal of the elite is to flood the country full of people with a 3rd world mentality (low skills and no education) to undercut the middle class and create a two tier system were either your rich or poor (like in Mexico).

When our resources dry up with nothing left to give, what then? These people really have nothing to offer the country. Illegals overcrowd our schools, have children they cant afford and expect others to pay for it and devalue the neighborhoods they take over.

With our economy teetering on the brink of a collapse, why would the average citizen be worried about poor Latinos when other people are poor themselves?

Unless the country take measures to deport poor uneducated illegal immigrants I just cant see where the money and other resources will come from to take care of them. We cant afford to take care of poor legal citizens let alone poor uneducated illegal immigrants. This article makes no sense.

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Obviously, most reading this article are hotheads believing the problems are caused by some ethnic group. Listen even to the hate-filled fasist tone marching in goose-step. Just what the Nazis did.

Uhh-whee. Wake up and evolve, please.

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Thanks to Josh for the article. I myself have personally witnessed the exploitation of Latin American workers during the three years that I worked as translator for a construction company in South Carolina. Working as a translator I had a personal insight into the new ghettos that have formed with immigrant workers that are exploited, over worked, and at times withheld pay on the whim of the construction boss. The debate over whether they belong is moot, its a reality that as long as there are huge disparities in income and opportunity between the US and Latin American countries people will come here to find a better life and as long as we have a economic system based on mass profit they will be welcomed eagerly into the workforce.

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Morris Dees sure makes lots of $ from the exploited. Much of it goes into his pocket too. As someone else said, poor people don't do well in the south, but really not so well anywhere.
It is so cliche to say that only jobs are taken that nobody wants. Maybe so, but at least someone would have accepted that job even if they hated it.
Morris Dees taints everything he touches, and makes the work of SPLC suspect. He is happy to be rich off of the suffering of the poor, even if he is on the "right" side of the lawsuits. Why not tell us how much money he makes, compared to how much he wins for his clients.
Lest you have your stereo type of me . . . I campaigned for Obama for several months full time for free.My wife is hispanic. I sure wish Obama would soon pull all the troops out everywhere.
By the way, why is noone complaining about Mexico? They created the conditions there which brought them here. Why don't they fix their own country? What would Mexico do to people who are illegally in their country? I have heard there are severe penalties? Lots of questions, few answers.

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Germany was the first industrialized country in Europe. They were an agrarian culture before then. It was the immigration of Jews and Romanians into the area that created the backlash. The Jewish immigrants were more educated and came from areas where there were large cities already so they had the knowledge necessary to run governments and start businesses. A few generations down the road and the German people found themselves working for 'foreigners'. The 'Roma' were the poor uneducated masses that drove down the wages.

We use all the same arguments, and all the same rhetoric here that was used there. The latino population will be our 'ubermensch' as we follow in the goosesteps of that other white culture. The comments here prove that.

You have no 'sympathy' for these economic refugees because our economic system has been hollowed out. We need to promote the creation of small businesses and lots of jobs here and abroad. The ever collapsing job market only makes us into snarling dogs. Screw this competition mindset, we need cooperation!

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"The authors add, "instead of acting to prohibit and eliminate systematic exploitation and discrimination against Latinos, state and local governments in much of the South have exacerbated the situation" through harsh local policies and over-the-top rhetoric about illegal immigration."

Who do you think makes up the authorities in the south? Why would this be a suprise? The treatment of people in the south is as old as the country itself. Slavery, Jim Crow, "right to work" states. None of this will change just the actors. The elite's like it this way.

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Lets be honest. What is really driving Illegal Immigration is Corporations that want to displace older American workers with younger Legal and Illegal Immigrants who usually come here at the age of 25. The corporations don't want to pay the pensions, disability and other entitlements that so many "baby boomers" have worked their lives to attain. So they support the Illegal Immigrant PACs and use them as proxies to destroy the livlihoods of older and younger American workers. In either case this expands the supply of labor thus driving down both American wages and benefits.

You want a revolution? Just keep going down this path.

The other problem with immigration is that it will bring another 200 to 300 million humans into the US over the next 100 years: something that can absolutely not be environmentally sustained. For more on that watch my video:

* Don't Vote for Traitors Obmaa or McCain
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzZ1N1Mm4Dg

* Where is the Bailout for the American Working Class
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5j57qdQi8Qg

* The "New Agenda for America"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdEtFEzyShM

* Why Lou Dobbs Should Demand A Stop To Legal Immigration
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kVA5UA38nE

* Why Lou Dobbs should support Re-Legalizing Marijuana
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VKf5YfQb7s

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As a native Alabaman, I find this article of using only interviews conducted in southern states only to be completely offensive. There are plenty more poor Latinos in states such as OH, MI, CA, NJ, NY, and MA to name a few. The author of this article might want to watch out because more electoral votes are gonna be snatched from the Northeast and given to the south as the population continues to shift from North to South.

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Just change that to 'Life in the South is Hell' and you've got it!

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Let me give you some anecdotal evidence.

A white lady friend of mine, laid off right after Christmas, is supplementing her unemployment, and perhaps forging a new career, by landscaping her favorite Vietnamese restaurant. So she hired her white, native-born unemployed 30-year-old nephew to help.

She told me how great of help he was and how hard he worked when they started the project last week. There was one little fly in the ointment, however, in that nephew didn't like arising before noon, so when they showed up the restaurant parking lot was packed to overflowing and had to park a block away. But he worked...for two days.

Yesterday, after nephew and she took the weekend off, was a beautiful day locally and my friend wanted to "hit it hard" as they say.

Long story short, after she called nephew twice, and he saying he'd be there, he never showed. So my friend did everything her 50-year-old body could handle.

She now ready to hire an illegal to help her finish the heavy lifting portion of the job.

Now, you say, this is only one case, and you are correct. However, I hear the same complaint from the white landscaper who plows my driveway and shovels my sidewalks in winter. He tells me the young white men he hires either quite after a couple of days or don't understand how to use the equipment. And if they know how to use the equipment, abuse it. I've even said to him that perhaps he should bow to the inevitable and start hiring illegals. He, to his credit, prefers not to but he says, if he can't get more reliable young white men, he'll either have to hire illegals or go out of business.

So, Honky the Misanthrope, and this goes for the rest of you white, libertarian malcontents, when're you going to get off that chair and out of your parent's basement and get a real job like the illegals do?

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As I read some of the comments here, I am appalled by the apparent lack of connection that people have with their own "immigration" status! Unless you or your parents have the legal right to live on "the Reservation" we are all immigrants! And while we're at it just understand that simply because your forebears came to this country before the "immigration laws" were put into place, doesn't mean that you and yours are not immigrants.

Second, it is soooooo very easy to scapegoat the Latino population but please let me ask a couple of questions: (1)who is planting/harvesting the little bit of agriculture left in this country, because I have yet to see any other than Latinos doing that work, (2)who is cleaning the office buildings in this country - Latino's, (3)most of the people that are hiring Latinos know that they are able to get away with this crap!

Why, because most know Latinos will not complain, or go to the police! Most know that they can pay them less, or stiff them on their pay, and the rules & regulations will not be enforced, or they will receive a slap on the wrist for their bad behavior! Is it wrong, of course it is! Are there poor white, African-American, and Asians that have experienced and are experiencing the same thing, of course they are! However, poor white people will tend to believe the lies told by the politicians and vote against their own interests; and the other groups will be pitted against each other in the ole "divide and conquer" technique that has been used for centuries(because it's been working)!

In the meantime we the people hear the platitudes about how we've got to stop "illegal" immigration, but the truth is - the moneyed elite will never want that, because it would do away with their cheap labor pool; because why pay someone an honest wage, when you can stiff some poor slob you know isn't going to file a complaint! Ah yes, the hypocrisy that is America!

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Your used the word xenophobia that is what your are.
The ILLEGAL ALIENS living in poverty in the USA are 2000% better of then living in poverty in MEXICO.

They think they are in heaven in the USA.

The majority Illegal Aliens are from MEXICO they are Mexicans not Hispanics.

Alter Net you keep printing this trash and we will keep attacking it.

Cover American citizens that have lost their jobs living in poverty screw the Illegal Aliens.

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maybe it's not the blonde haired blue eyed british guy's appearance...maybe it's the fact that he speaks english!?!?

maybe those racist southerners who discriminate against dark skinned folks from mexico and central america don't want to learn spanish.

maybe they feel more comfortable with dark skinned folks from india who speak english?

let's not rule this language issue out as an explanation.

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From the top down comes the thought,
We need to keep those people in line,
And the structure taut because,
I want to keep what's naturally mine.

Class and caste frames the debate,
Keeps the next to the bottom,
Filled with hate.

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truth is...life is hell for ALL people who have children they can't feed...i don't give a damn what part of this dying planet you are from. most of us are all going to experience a great amount of suffering and displacement during the next century. anyone living in the americas has it much better than the vast majority of people around the world. instead of continuing to get on the pity-potty about poverty in the americas, look around the planet and you'll see there is very little to bitch about.

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Illegals Depress Wages For ALL becuase it happen to me in Boston.

The "Jobs Americans Wont do" argument was cooked up by someone whom hands were as soft as butter. In this market downturn where massive layoffs are around the corner people's families need to be fed, bills need to be paid and people need to live so the "Jobs American Wont Do" argument is dieing and it is about time. This crosses party lines and will be one of the many over reaches of the Obama Administration.

For too long the (R)'s wanted the cheep labor and the (D)'s want the cheep lifetime voters however for the "common man" the Democrat Party clams to represent, why screw over the natural born citizen for just new voters... that comes to just being power hungry.

These writers, economics brain trust, wizards of smart don't live in American's Ghettos, don't send there kids to public school, don't work in factories or in fields. These are the people whom they hire to put on there roofs, tailor there suits, cut there grass and watch there kids. Welcome to modern day indentured servitude.

The Progressive Democrats are running the show now and are willing to keep that border open just for the reward of there votes becuase the thrust for power has become quite addiction. Amnesty fight will return just with President Bush, however at least he listen. The MSN has put many to sleep when it comes to the affairs of America. Its time to wake up before its too late.

p.s. Don't even get me started on Sex Slavery and human trafficking

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For the likes of phatkhat, johnwinthrop, or others who cannot stand immigrants I have this to say, HB1 holders do not do menial jobs that you allude to. They do high tech jobs that are in high demand but not enough locals to do. Visit any university that offers technical graduate programs and you will see for yourself that majority of those students are foreign. I personally have attended three different universities during my academic endeavor and I can attest with confidence that, that is the case. That means most of the future prospects in high-end tech fields will be drawn from this pool and that is even more true for other western societies whose populations have reached/or about to reach maturity stage

About 25 years ago after the death of my father our family moved to mud house in a poor section of major metropolis in Africa. Since college 8 years ago, I have been employed in pharmaceutical industry (on HB1) and believe me not, a month does not pass (including this recession) without a potential employer wanting to recruit me with at least 10% income hike. I would urge the likes of you to start getting used to people who are culturally different since they are, increasingly, a substantial segment of people in these fields

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Looking around at all the corruption in this country from multi-national corporations, government, some employers, the justice system, and on, I don't think anyone has a great chance of success in this country anymore. Just keeping food and shelter is becoming impossible for many citizens. I can't imagine the plight of illegals. But if I were an illegal, I'd head home where at least I was part of the culture and ethnicity. As more of us populate this planet and resources become more expensive, I fear for this country. We have too many without educations, too many without kindness in their hearts, too many selfish people, too many brutal people. Life is not easy even when things are going well. But if things don't change we may all be living like the poor, like the illegal. We will all know what it is like to suffer and your skin color or language, or place of birth won't matter. Let's take care of each other with kindness.

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Lots of hostile rants about "illegals," but the SPLC study was of U.S. citizens and permanent residents with permission to live and work here as well as unauthorized immigrants.

And none of those included in Hersch's study were undocumented. It focused only on legal immigrants.

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The study (and article) are trying to prove two somewhat conflicting ideas at once.

Let's look at the supposition that racism directed at Latinos is a result of their being perceived (incorrectly) to be mostly illegal immigrants.

Think about it a few seconds. Everybody in the South generally assumes that any black person they see is a native US citizen. That doesn't mean there is no racism directed at them, does it?

Of course, nowadays not all blacks are natives of the US, some are immigrants too -- but that's not why there's racism directed at them.

Regarding a couple of the other stats:

"In New Orleans, 4 out of 5 low-income Latinos said they’d been ripped off by employers who hadn’t paid them for work they’d done" ... predicted by progressives who saw the Republicans using Katrina as an excuse to shove native blacks out of the Gulf rebuilding and replace them with illegal immigrants and outside Latinos;

"40 percent of Georgia [Latino] respondents reported being mistreated by police"... happens everywhere in the US, and did long before the current immigration crisis - or hysteria, if you prefer. Happened to Puerto Ricans in New York for instance, during the decades when they were the only sizable Latino group in NYC, and has always happened to native blacks practically everywhere in the US as well.

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and always has been. People in Dixie are used to being born, growing up, and living out their lives in ethnically homogenized areas. They are suspicious of anyone who is "different". This is definitely the same system that kept African Americans marginalized for centuries. Now it's happening to the "Mexicans" (never mind that a lot of these people are from Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, and other countries to the south of us). There are places near where I live here in Florida where Latinos are held as slave laborers. No one seems to be doing much about it even though everyone knows it's going on.

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Much as some of the more compassionate souls would like it if there were no distinctions, the truth is that there are, and they're legal distinctions, OK?
While it may be unfortunate that there are "down and out" illegal aliens in the country, my concerns stop well ahead of any course of action to rectify the problem, unless the action is to deport them to their country of origin. Never could understand why anyone who flaunts our laws of entry, should automatically become "our victims", especially, in view of the fact that we've got more than enough poor of our own. And whatever happened to the responsibility of the country or origin in the matter of its citizenry migrating in such numbers to get away from the miserable conditions of their native land? Why is Mexico getting off so easy, and free of any burden regarding its own citizens. Of what value then is Mexican citizenry? And if Mexican citizenship is worthless, isn't Mexico also worthless by extension?

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Observed following incident in a typical middle-class department store. Mexican woman came in with four very young children, who ran wild while she examined clothing. Though she was standing nearby, she ignored their behavior. Her little boy about 4 years old started twirling a large mannequin around its base. The store has a strict budget, and its associates are warned constantly that only its visual staff are allowed to disassemble mannequins, since they are very expensive. The associate on duty, tired at the end of a long day, said quietly and without rancor, "They can't play with it. It's expensive." (Note: the store would never charge customers for damage; any damages to store property cut into profits. ) The Mexican woman flew into a rage, and demanded to speak to the manager, and made a complaint about how insulting the (White) associate's comment was. Later, the manager instructed the bewildered associate to use phrases expressing concern for the child, "Please, he might hurt himself if the mannequin falls off of its base" or similar. The associate agreed that using concern for the child as a way to protect the mannnequin and other store property was more tactful and likely to avert further complaints. BUT please what sort of message are we Americans sending? That we are so stupid and weak that we gladly would allow her children to trash our property, except that the poor little things might accidently injure themselves in the process? That we Americans are incapable of protecting our interests in any way, shape or form? That we must cower in fear of fair-treatment complaints (which in a worst-case scenario could end up in court) by people who are in fact destroying property which we can ill afford to replace? We are telling them lies. We Americans are just plain not that sweety-sweety-sweet damn nice. We do get angry. We do think that the immigrants are pretty much a waste of our money. They can't see things our way. A typical White woman being told that the mannequin was expensive would immediately empathize with the associate and with the people in the store who are struggling in a bad economy, and not try to get anyone in trouble. Let's be honest with the Mexicans and honest with ourselves. We resent them, and despite our pretenses at extreme virtue, our resentments are likely to explode into violent rage, just as with any other oppressed people. A lot of Liberals are probably thinking that this post is somewhat less than compassionate; however, a large part of true compassion is accepting one's own limitations. Sorry to say, but America does have limitations.

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Hi people,

Immigrants are good for our economy. What we need to do is to give them the power to make a difference. Most immigrants are living in poverty because they don't have the ability to move out of it because our laws keep them there. Other people are in poverty because they have an impoverished mindset. Believe me, anyone is being selfish by saying that the immigrants need to go home is not helping one bit. We need to empower the immigrants to make changes to make our world a better place. We have a work force that works hard every day, willing to go the extra mile and even ten extra miles, actually if they're here they may have gone thousands of extra miles, they would walk ten thousand miles just to be the man who scrubs your toilet. That's commitment. You can't fault that logically. We need more people that are willing to try that hard. It do well for us to implement comprehensive immigration reform and give amnesty to the workers that are here. They will work and earn money and buy products that create jobs that create more money to buy more products that create more jobs. Immigrants are good. Bring 'em on!

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GO TO THE FBI`S MOST WANTED LISTS.THERE ALL MEXICANS. SO I GUESS YOUR ALL CORRECT MOST AMERICANS DON`T WANT TO FELONS.. SO WE LEAVE IT TO THE MEXICANS....

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Immigrants are exploited and abused by bosses, because they're illegal and the bosses pass a buck to the politicos to keep pressure on them. Native "white" workers are kicked out of their jobs because they demand things like oh I dunno a living wage, time off, overtime, et cetera.

The problem is the bosses. The workers are just responding to who they see doing their jobs- they're not ignorant racist rednecks or whatever. The illegals are just trying to make a living. The solution is robust immigration enforcement, not targeted at the illegals themselves but at the bosses who employ them.

This will have the added bonus of making America less attractive to immigrants and thus making them not show up (I dislike immigrants because they reproduce so disproportionately quickly, and I hate urban sprawl), which will also have the added bonus of reducing the power of coyotes- people smugglers.

It'll also have the bonus of undermining the power base of exploitative bosses. That will shift the economy back towards domestic-wealth-generating entrepreneurs, and away from people who screw over their communities and send America's wealth out of the country (just to skim a little off the top for themselves).

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If any of you people that have made comments ,PLEASE,read more by the "southern poverty law center".It should be called"It`s the dirty white mans fault" because that is there basic rant...

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by 6 or 7 new borns. Population is shrinking in most of the industrialized world. This is not true for the United States. That is because we have migration. If you are retired everytime you spend a dollar consider what part of that dollar was paid in by an "illegal".

As we stand about 75% of the Mexican illegals brought their family with them. Approximately 70% of these families have in them children born in the United States. These children are U. S. citizens. They will be allowed to stay or to return.

Life is sometimes very simple. There is always more work to be done than there are people to do it. It never changes. Just because corporate capitalist big business has no jobs available, doesn't mean that there isn't work to be done. Unemployment is crap. It should never exist. When you go around the United States and look at all of the beautiful things that the WPA built, you wonder why we quit.

We are living in a world where the people at the top are incompetitent. These incompetitent people have been telling you self seving lies and you have been dumb enough to listen. Stop. Go buy yourself a copy of "The Spirit Level", read it carefully and accept nothing not proven. You will never be the same.

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I'm soooo tired of hearing about the poor "Latinos", I've never heard so much crying over a race in my life. ASSIMILATE or go home. When the next wave of illegal immigrants come over the horizon and YOU are betrayed by a government that took an oath to advocate in your best intrests, you will then know what it is truley like to be an AMERICAN

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banner ad on this page: 1 in 6 American children go hungry each year... and i'm sure not all those children are immigrants. another reason to talk about poverty in the born-here community of americans...

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You mean your Ford pickup IF it starts, IF you can afford to put gas in it, IF the cruise control doesn't mysteriously explode, and IF it can catch my Jaguar.

Those are quite a few ifs, I'll put my money on me.

And as for 'manliness' your V8 Ford penis extension is about 4 cylinders and a hundred horsepower short of a real engine. But of course you only have it to show the world that you're a 'real 'merican mayun!'.

Idiots like you make life amusing.

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I don't live in the US and admittedly illegal labor is less over here in Europe, but it still is rather apparent that it is tolerated in sectors where the political class wants products to be made cheaply. Especially food, to keep the city populations happy. People may protest immigration now, but that's nothing to how they'd howl if the price of tomatoes tripled because of decent wages.

I work as an agricultural worker at the moment, and even in Europe pay is (legally) lower on an hour basis than in any other sector, with no coffee breaks or anything. And when demand for workers risks pushing up wages, the immigration faucet is opened to push them down again.

So what basically is happening is that the politicians posture by blasting immigrants, but actually need those same immigrants to keep prices down and urban populations happy. And that's why you'll see a police car drive past a field where they know full well that the workers are all illegals, without stopping. They have instructions.

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Let's give America back to the Indians,and we all go back to where we come from

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It's gratifying to see that many progressives can see through the rhetoric and recognize our high level of immigration, both illegal and legal, for what it is: a subsidy to business paid for by reduced wages for working people (see Harvard's Borjas) as well as an enormous added strain on the Earth's resources.
In my district we have a moderate Republican who is a fiscal conservative (balance the budget), an excellent environmental vote and who has offered a couple of bills opposing illegal immigration. He is the one Republican I will support him over any Biz Dem like Pelosi and the rest of the pack. The only Dem who gets it is Congressman DeFazio, D-OR.
The Republican Party will be reborn as the jobs/wages and environment party if it can solidify on immigration reduction.
What good things can be expected in and of a USA with 500 million people within 50 years or so? We already expropriate a land area equal to Brazil for our hamburgers and patio furniture.
The Alternet is so 60s. By God, we have an Afro-American as President. Can we start getting real about real problems already?

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I agree that all workers are being exploited by the rich: legal, illegal, brown or white. It benefits the ruling class to set us against eachother. Here in New York the Irish and the recently freed African-Americans had some horrific encounters many years ago. Our anger should focus on the system that allows the exploitation of all of us.
(That said, the Dominicans and Mexicans would get a lot more sympathy, at least here in Brooklyn, if more of them made an effort to learn English. Instead the majority act offended when others don't speak Spanish.) I think the best way to solve the illegal immigration situation is to mandate a minimum wage for all workers and substantial fines (plus back-pay awards to the workers) for those who hire illegals. Locals would naturally hire other locals first, since there would be no financial incentive to hiring migrants or illegals. If an area then does still have a labor shortage, people from other areas could move there. Places with enough local talent would be unattractive to move to and it would end up all balancing out. Never going to happen of course; the current non-system suits the rich just fine.

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The best and probably only way to deal with the issue is : Jail time for the johns, the illegal employers.
Under Bush I there were 1100 prosecutions a year. Under Clinton (pimping for his buddies, the Waltons and the Tysons) and then under Bush II (pimping for everyone else), prosecutions fell to 11 per year.
According to Harvard's Borjas, himself an immigrant, mass immigration is the greatest transfer of wealth in this nation's history, from working people, (who see their wages depressed and average of 7% at the bottom to 3% at the top), to the wealthy.
I agree with the previous writer's solution, however, it should include deportation for the illegals. Also, we should consider some sort of protective tariffs from nations that underpay their workers and hence compete unfairly with American farm products.
There is no labor shortage in the US. There is an overactive economy-about 50% greater economic activity per capita than Western Europe.
Don't be pessimistic. Look for allies wherever you can find them. Republicans are a better hope on this issue than are people who like to think of themselves as progressives (and who will call you a racist for your viewpoint). A Republican Party that acts like Democrats ought to is a good thing. Out the Biz Dems. Out the complicity of us comfy armchair "progressives" selling out our fellow Americans; expropriating ecological capital across the globe.

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