The Wall

[BananaStand]

Pretty sure you'd be hard pressed to find a lot of people willing to do all those shit jobs illegals are doing

There's just so many racist angles here. Why is it ok to take our shittiest occupations, staff them with brown people, and pay them a sub-standard wage, just so we can enjoy lower priced luxuries? 150 year ago, that was called slavery. You know America fought a civil war to end this exact practice right?

Out of curiosity, how would you handle enforce labor laws and workers rights? I read a story last week about a dude from Bangladesh who answered an ad and came over on some kind of work visa to be a cook. He was studying culinary arts in his home country. He was promised a salary and an apartment. When he arrived he was given squalid conditions, a wage far less than what was promised, and his duties were mostly janitorial, with some short-order cooking in a diner. When he complained, his employer threatened to revoke his visa sponsorship and send him home. And that dude was here LEGALLY!

Now imagine how much leverage an employer would have over an illegal immigrant! If everyone is turning a blind eye to illegal labor....how do you protect these people from exploitation?

You make good points but in the end the costs and benefits tend to wash out. There is a benefit to employers, there is a pool of labour that wouldn't otherwise be available, and it's cheap labour. Those benefits get passed on to consumers in lower prices for goods.

It's really convenient for your argument if they do indeed "wash out", but I haven't seen any accounting to that effect whatsoever. Even if you're right, and it's a wash, then there's no economic downside to doing things the legal way. Right?

Do you need a wall to do that? Or is it just there to keep drugs and criminals out?

Terrorist too. But no, you don't need a wall. And I'm not sure how I became the wall spokesperson here. I am on record as being opposed to the wall. I do agree with the motivations for it though, I just think it's an ineffective solution to those problems. Other arguments against the wall, in this thread, seem to be limited to "drugs are fine" and "illegal workers aren't bothering anyone". Both of which I find completely absurd.