How California’s Democrats Are Screwing Immigrants

Not Hiring Illegals Would be a Crime

• While I disagree with the author on a lot of immigration policy he makes a number of interesting points about the open borders Democrat and Republican parties.

By Ruben Navarrette

(The Daily Beast)  -  In the 1990s, Republicans controlled the Golden State and made a mess of the immigration issue by leading with emotion and passing half-baked laws that raised serious questions.

Today, Democrats control California, and they’re making a mess of the immigration issue by leading with emotion and proposing half-baked laws that raise serious questions.

Each camp was more interested in sending a message than making good policy.

For Republicans, the message was “Keep Out.” But no one took that directive seriously, given that contributions from big business is the mother’s milk of the GOP, and big business would be a lot smaller without illegal immigrant labor. Take California agribusiness, which contributes mightily to Republicans in the state. The industry generates more than $45 billion annually in revenue, and it would shrivel up like a raisin in the sun without illegal immigrants.

Indeed, a big reason that the nation’s most populous state is home to an estimated 2.5 million illegal immigrants is because it’s also home to countless farmers, ranchers, restaurateurs, hoteliers, construction firms, small-businessmen, and homeowners who rely on illegal immigrant labor for their slice of the California Dream. This game is all about supply and demand, and you never hear those tough-talking Republicans say anything about cracking down on the demand side.

How is this possible???
Somehow the Chinese have managed to harvest their crops for thousands of years without importing Mexican farm labor.  I have even heard rumors that in the olden days white and black people used to work on farms.  But today the government pays welfare to American citizens of all races not to work and imports cheap foreign labor for big business.

Meanwhile, California Democrats want a gigantic expansion of rights, benefits and protections for the undocumented.

Their message is “bienvenidos.” In their language, that translates to: “Welcome to California. Stay a while. You’re just as good as anyone born in this country, and so we’re going to give you the same rights and privileges they have. We can’t give you legal status or a green card. But we can give you a lot of other things to make your stay more comfortable.”

At a news conference in Sacramento, a group of Democratic legislators—switching back and forth between English and Spanish—recently unveiled a package of 10 bills that would, among other things: create an Office of New Americans in the governor’s office to better serve the undocumented; provide illegal immigrants with subsidized health care by extending Medi-Cal coverage to all Californians, regardless of immigration status; limit use of “E-Verify” (the government-run database that employers use to check if prospective hires are legally eligible to work) and prevent “abuse” by employers; and ban businesses from discriminating against residents based on their immigration status, citizenship, or language.

That last one is a beauty. If it extends to hiring, it flies in the face of federal law, namely the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act that made it a federal crime to knowingly hire an illegal immigrant. Now California wants to make it a state crime to not hire one? Employers can now pick their poison: They can violate one law or the other.

I question the motivation for this outburst of legislative generosity. And I have a theory as to why they are doing this now.

For the last few years, President Obama was deporting an average of 400,000 illegal immigrants every 12 months and unlawfully detaining thousands of women and children from Central America in horrendous conditions. Meanwhile, the Democratic members of the California legislature—even the Latino Caucus—were saying nada about it, and I’ve wondered how they were going to work through their guilt and atone for this dereliction of duty.

Now, with the California Democrats’ grab bag of giveaways, freebies and protections, we have the answer.

Read More . . . .

Somehow Kenyans have managed to harvest their crops for thousands 
of years without importing Mexican labor.

For the sheltered among us - This is called a FARM. They grow food there. 
This photo is from a 19th Century American farm back when Americans planted and harvested their own crops without imported labor.

America the Lazy.
Congress is looking at immigration "reform".  While some reform is needed, big and small businesses want reforms that import more inexpensive foreign workers while countless millions of Americans are PAID by the government to sit on their asses and do nothing.