Wonderful. It's the season of good cheer and kindness and love. Right? Wrong.
I was just down in San Diego visiting friends, and the debate about illegal immigration is in full swing. Many people seem to feel that illegal immigrants are a drain to the economy, and that they take jobs away from people.
I've had enough. More below.
Every Californian benefits from, and supports businesses who hire illegal immigrants (If you buy the products, you support the business). All of them. How can they pay for the products that are produced by these people, and then chastise them for "breaking the law" to get here? Too many Californians are not living in the real world. I don't understand this type of thinking.
Every field is manned with illegal laborers, and the work they do affects the prices that we pay in grocery stores for produce. I don't hear too many people complaining about cheap produce around here. Complaining about the very people who you support, by purchasing the fruits of their labors, is grossly hypocritical.
The agricultural fields are just one example. A large amount of restaurants in California, especially southern California, use the labor of illegal immigrants. They do. Californians flock to restaurants to gobble up the food they sell. They support the business, they love the products, yet they continually get angry about illegal immigrants who are a so-called detriment to the state. To me, it seems that many people are benefitting from the work that those people provide. After all, they keep going back for more.
My hometown of Carlsbad, California was brash enough to go around destroying immigrant housing that was out in the fields. This, from a town that is full of restaurants which employ illegal immigrants. Trust me on that, I worked in those restaurants. I have friends who had to sneak their way to and from work, in fear of getting caught and deported. They worked harder than me, or anybody I've ever known. They were afraid of the very same people who they made lunch for.
Stealing jobs. Many illegal immigrants do the jobs that nobody else is doing. I dont know very many Californians who are angry that they couldn't get a job working as a field laborer.
The immigrants are filling a need. We have created the market, they are supplying the labor. Californians complain, but I dont understand why. Most wouldn't want to be working in some hot field from 4 a.m. to 6 p.m., five or six days a week. Those people work hard, and their work should be respected and appreciated.
I think it's time for change. If Californians buy the products, and enjoy paying the low prices, at least cease harassing the people who do the hard work that makes it possible. Why should illegal workers have to live in fear so they can make omelettes for Americans? We can't keep reaping the benefits of these hard working people while treating them like criminals.
To everyone in California: next time you make yourself a nice big beautiful green salad, take a little time to think about the person who trekked all the way from a place like Guatemala to help make that salad possible, and affordable.
Of course, many people think that all food just originates in some Costco warehouse...