Condi - we already endorse 'slavery' here in the United States

[LynneSin]

THe fact that you're convoluted policy on illegal immigrants focuses entirely on the illegals and not one iota on the companies that hire illegal immigrants, pay them substandard wages, provide poor living conditions pretty much is the new slavery of our generation.

Like the African-Americans and Chinese-AMericans before them, they were brought to this country as an alternative of having to pay someone minimum wages to do a job.

And yet it's the fault of the immigrant. Perhaps if Bush targeted the real culprit - the companies that hire these illegal immigrants, we might have a solution to our problem.

And don't even get me started with Wal-Mart!

[AspenRose]

1. America's dependence on cheap/free labor since the inception of the nation

hasn't changed.....we haven't learned our lesson *shaking head*

[Virginia Dare]

2. Yes...

this country was built on the backs of slaves and immigrants. What's changed?

[LynneSin]

4. What's changed? The Rich keep getting richer

and the middle class is being eroded to the point that one day we'll have nothing left but a career at Wal-mart with no benefits, long hours, minimum wage and generally poor working conditions

[Virginia Dare]

You're right, we're being sent back a couple of hundred

years. We're losing everything that's ever been gained in this country over the last 100 years or so. It is all for naught.

[Virginia Dare]

7. Dupe

[LynneSin]

3. ABSOLUTELY

I knew a guy who did volunteer work for the immigrants at the Mushroom farms in PA, probably the closest place to where I live that used illegal immigrants. He was telling me about the horrible condition that some of these workers were provided

It's just a shame that this is still happening in our country

[Cleita]

5. Also, even if we succeed in getting rid of immigrants from south

of the border, either through a great big wall or maybe because they get decent pay and jobs in their own country and stop coming here, we still need that labor especially in agriculture. So we will start importing more underclasses to fill that need from other countries. Most of those people won't be white so all the whinning about those people will start all over again. What we really need to do besides clamping down on employers who exploit the cheap labor whether here or overseas is to start addressing our own xenophobia.

[AspenRose]

6. Very true re: xenophobia

The folks historically who have labored in this country who were white (irish indentured servants), managed to climb up the ladder and earn 'white' privilege.

Not easy, however, to earn 'white' privilege when you aren't 'white'....no matter how far up the ladder you climb, you STILL will be identified as 'one of them.'

[JNelson6563]

8. Didn't some mag or newspaper

announce that the Irish were "almost white" once Kennedy was elected? I seem to recall reading something like that.

Julie

[fasttense]

9. They could get all the labor they want if they paid a living wage

Agriculture wants their cake and eat it too. They want Cheap, cheap, cheap labor. I've worked in the fields. I know it is hard work. They should pay for that hard work or develop machinery to do it. But using an illegal, underpaid and abused work force is not the answer and these illegal employers should be run out of business.

[Cleita]

10. Field work is seasonal. It just doesn't employ anyone full time.

This is why labor is needed at the time it's needed or the crop goes unpicked. I know many Americans are willing. There just aren't enough of them at harvest. The migrant workers who used to follow the crops have moved on to better jobs. There's a lot of work that needs to be done on the drawing board about this issue, but none of our leadership seems to be capable of it.