interesting point of view on illegal immigrants

[corndogggy]

I visited my uncle in Florida on Saturday. He's a watermelon farmer. Basically I found out that he employs some Mexicans so I started asking a whole bunch of questions. Basically first of all he said he attempts to be as legal as possible by requiring most of them to have workman's comp. Apparently not all of them have it or something, I'm not sure. But anyway, he said most people are shocked to hear that it's not about low wages. He says his cheapest worker makes $96 a day - $8 an hour. They are there 9 hours a day with an hour worth of breaks. The salaries go up from there, some make nearly twice that, so some of them are making $15 an hour or so. He said he is fully against them coming over here and not knowing English, not paying taxes, etc., etc., etc.... but at the same time, he has no choice. I kept pushing to figure out exactly what that meant, and he finally just laid it out - they actually work... HARD.

He said the average Mexican that he hires has been working in the fields in the blistering sun, nearly all day, year round, for 20 years. They are efficient, they work as hard as possible, they are proud of their culture and don't want to be labeled as slackers, they understand that their hard work turns into good crops and will provide them a great job next year, they aren't affected by the heat, and can basically keep up this job for 3 months straight. His crew of 40 Mexicans ends up moving half a million pounds worth of watermelons out of the field every day, by hand, among other things such as turning the vines and hand cultivating the soil. That's 12,500 pounds of watermelons for each person.

He said in comparison, I could go out and get the best suited white boy I think I can find, a 25 year old studly farmer, and he could almost guarantee that they'd last about two days and would be done, the working conditions would make them think they're about to die. Either that, or their output wouldn't be anywhere near the same. Apparently he's tried to do that in the past, and there are simply no American workers who can do that job. He's gotten to the point where he will hire nothing but Mexicans. This guy lives in a house that would make most people's jaw drop around here, it's a serious and highly successful business, so he's seen alot, and he will flat out say that he simply cannot find a white American who can work anywhere near the level of a Mexican, no matter what the pay, even $2,000 a day.

Anyway, I was just rather surprised to hear all this. Interesting, or shocking, or something like that.

[Rabbit Runner]

I will completly agree with that and that is why you see them in the tobacco fields as well!

[raktrakr]

The ones that work aint the problem, its the deadbeats that are shacked up with some fat chick that draws a check on her 4 kids and those are the ones getting bad around here. Ive also just learned what theyre doing to keep themselves steady work in tobacco and its p*ssed a lot of farmers off around here.
I see your point though, kids today only know two things, work with todays technology with little effort or just plain sit on thier a**

[Snareman2]

I agree, there are some hard workers. However, there are some hard to trace gangbangers that ruin it for the good ones. We have enough violence and crime, we don't need anymore coming in to do there part.

[WildmanWilson]

Isnt it amazing that our country was able to grow and prosper before the Mexican workers were here. Maybe the Mayflower was really loaded down with Mexicans and it was them that made America what it is today. Maybe Henry Ford hired all Mexicans to build his cars since Americans were to lazy or could the Civilian Conservation Corps responsible for multitudes of had working project all across this land really have been Mexicans.

I don't buy into the story at all that Americans cant do the work. The problem we have in America now is that the Government has produced a country full of people used to hand outs rather than working for things they need. Before we had so many government handouts people had to work to eat and work to put a roof over their head. Take away the free ride for a lot of people and I guarantee you'll see more Americans picking watermelons.

[nwest]

Take away the free ride for a lot of people and I guarantee you'll see more Americans picking watermelons.

I agree, Maybe we should start deporting the welfare demographic and keep the mexicans

[nwest]

I agree, there are some hard workers. However, there are some hard to trace gangbangers that ruin it for the good ones. We have enough violence and crime, we don't need anymore coming in to do there part.


alot of this is self inflicted by "sanctuary cities" LA is at the top of the list.

http://fredfile.fred08.com/blog/2007/sancutary-cities/

http://www.city-journal.org/html/14_1_the_illegal_alien.html

[skin_dog1]

Ive also just learned what theyre doing to keep themselves steady work in tobacco and its p*ssed a lot of farmers off around here.
What do you mean?

[corndogggy]

I don't buy into the story at all that Americans cant do the work. The problem we have in America now is that the Government has produced a country full of people used to hand outs rather than working for things they need. Before we had so many government handouts people had to work to eat and work to put a roof over their head. Take away the free ride for a lot of people and I guarantee you'll see more Americans picking watermelons.


Well, that's kind of what he was saying, not that Mexican genetics are superior for this work or anything, but that our culture has ruined us. Actually those were about his exact words, that our culture has ruined us in regards to this type of work. He said it was the way that people are raised over here nowadays.

I imagine that the location would have something to do with it too. Lots of us grew up on or around farms around here and don't want to believe that they can out-work us, but I bet it would be even worse if you compared the 20-somethings he's got to pick from in Florida. His biggest watermelon patch is right outside of Miami. Something tells me that white boys from Miami aren't exactly the best farmers for brutal field work. :D

[ptbrauch]

I don't think it has anything to do with American who "can't" do the work, its that they WON'T do it. Have you ever paid attention to the highway crews picking up garbage on the side of the road before they mow? Take a look at the guys running the weedeaters. Then look at the guys driving the tractors and the trucks. Tell me you don't see a pattern.

Then take a look at them next July when the temperature is 95 degrees out there and tell me you'd do any one of those three jobs.

[hannibal]

The ones that work aint the problem, its the deadbeats that are shacked up with some fat chick that draws a check on her 4 kids and those are the ones getting bad around here.

Is this just mexicans doing that?

[MsgMills]

You know I can see exactly how Corndoggy's uncle sees things in the aspect of actual workers. I've witnessed first hand the different jobs that the Mexicans have done compared to having white men or even black men doing the same jobs. The Mexicans are never complaining about the heat or the cold, they just keep working.

As far as working on a farm, from the time I was 11 years old I was working, helping a few farmers who lived down the road. That is until we moved from the area at age 16 or so. But each year we were hired to help put up hay, straw or alfalfa in the summer. Stacking hay in the top of a barn when it's about 90 plus outside and all the dust flying around. Sometimes you could hardly see 10 feet in front of you.

When it was corn picking time in the fields, my brother and I were hired to "Open up the Corn Fields" If none of you know what I mean, it's when you have to go into the corn field and pick at least the first 4 rolls of corn off the stalk by hand around the entire field and throw the ears into piles in between the 5th and 6th rolls. Then hand pick the 4 center rolls down the entire length of the field. Why you ask do you do this? Well back in the early 70's hardly no one had a Combine, they only had Corn Pickers attached to a tractor. Well the width of the tractor and Corn Picker were so wide, that they would knock down the first 4 rolls of the field as they picked the corn. So instead of wasting the corn on the first 4 rolls, we were hired to pick them off by hand. Opening up a field would take at least 2 full days of almost non-stop work. Then after the Corn Picking would start, one of us would have to ride in the wagon that was being pulled behind the corn picker and shovel the ears towards the back of the wagon so it would fill up evenly.

Just passing on a little clue as to some of the jobs that occurred on farms when I was a youngster, got paid anywhere from 2.00 to 3.00 an hour during those days working for the farmers.

Hard work and just ask yourselves this question, would you work for 8.00 an hour now to do the jobs I did back then, today now?:)

[Wildcat]

What part of "illegal" does people not understand???

I have no problems with any legal people that came to this country LEGEALLY, let them work all they want and make as much as they possibly can since they came in LEGALLY.

If someone cannot show they are here legally then do NOT hire them . If 50 people show up and only 20 of them can prove they are here legally then hire those 20 no mater how big the job.

If someone hires those 20 and just one more as an illegal then he needs to be arrested and fined, that's the law. Two wrongs do not make a right. First wrong they came here illegally, second wrong was illegally hiring them to work.

The "great American welfare system" is NOT an excuse to allow illegalls in here anyway they want to come. It's no different than saying the guy next door poached a big buck so it's ok for me to do the same.

[raktrakr]

What do you mean?They'll cut all day on one farm and instead of coming back the next day they'll be cutting all day some where else and keep doing this. then eventually go back to where they started cutting(Ive seen up to almost two weeks) to house whats on the ground.When all is said and done, they might have up to 20 or more acres of tobacco on the ground waiting for them to hang

[raktrakr]

Is this just mexicans doing that?No, but they've been catching on pretty quick:rolleyes:

[hannibal]

I often wonder how many people here can pass a citizenship test?

[ptbrauch]

I wonder how many Mexican-flag waving protesters want to try to pass a citizenship test?

[hannibal]

the MAJORITY of immigrants, illegal or not, are here to work. they want to carve out a place for their families. they want to live in a place where their children have a chance at an education beyond 6th grade. how hard is it to pass a test in a whole different language when you can't read your own. i would guess that if you walked up to most illegals and asked them if they wanted to be here legally they would say yes. but of course we'll view them as a drain on society because a minority of them want to be a louse on society.

[corndogggy]

What part of "illegal" does people not understand???

I have no problems with any legal people that came to this country LEGEALLY, let them work all they want and make as much as they possibly can since they came in LEGALLY.

If someone cannot show they are here legally then do NOT hire them . If 50 people show up and only 20 of them can prove they are here legally then hire those 20 no mater how big the job.

If someone hires those 20 and just one more as an illegal then he needs to be arrested and fined, that's the law. Two wrongs do not make a right. First wrong they came here illegally, second wrong was illegally hiring them to work.

The "great American welfare system" is NOT an excuse to allow illegalls in here anyway they want to come. It's no different than saying the guy next door poached a big buck so it's ok for me to do the same.


That's kind of the situation that my uncle found himself in though. Theoretically, he believes just as you do. In reality though... who else is he going to hire? First of all, most everybody that's not an immigrant simply can't or won't do the work, but complicating the situation is that in Florida, there's a whole hell of alot of food in the form of fruit, and even if there are some Americans or legal immigrants who can and will do the work, there just aren't enough to go around. So, it's kind of like, he feels forced to hire these Mexicans, although he attempts to be as legal as possible by making them have workman's comp. Otherwise, given the situation, he'd pretty much have to give up his business. If he can't find workers who will do the job, he loses the watermelon farm. That's the grim reality of it, as he simply can't do what you are saying. That's why it was kind of shocking to me.

Regarding the tactics in the tobacco fields, there's another tactic that apparently happens alot with Mexicans in the fruit business. Watermelons for example, are grown in south Florida all the way up to Indiana. They come in later on in the year as you head further north. So these guys have a house in south Florida and travel from farm to farm while the watermelons are growing, until they hit Indiana, then they go back home to grow tomatoes during the winter. Apparently if you have an unexpected good yield, and it takes them longer to pick the fruit, they'll sometimes just ditch you. If they don't keep on schedule, it messes up their next job, and the next, etc. So, when it's time to go to the next farm, they'll just pack up and leave, leaving a whole bunch of watermelons in the field and nobody to pick them. Then they come back the next year expecting a job. My uncle has to pay higher wages than you would expect so they will bust their ass and not get into this situation to begin with, but also to guarantee that they'll stick around until the job is finished. I didn't realize they traveled around like that.

[yote hunter]

i have no problem with immagrent farm labor we have used them for 100 years in america.my problem is that if you go on just about any construction site in kentucky all the carpentors,drywallers,roofers,bricklayers,drywall finishers,laborers,concrete finishers are all mexicans.i went to work on the dorm for u of l basketball players a few years ago and thought i had gone back in time to the last day at the alamo:confused:.americans have always done these jobs its only in the last 10 years or so that its changed.a contractor tring to compete with a crew of mexicans cant .he has to pay workmans comp,unemployment insurance and various other things that the guy using illeagels doe not have to pay.

[hannibal]

I used to know a guy that ran a very profitable irrigation business. One day he asked me if I knew of anybody that needed a job. Someone that knew their way around the business end of a shovel and didn't mind a hard days work. Sad thing is....I didn't know anybody that would do that type of labor. Most born and bred citizens live with a sense of entitlement that those jobs aren't worth it, or are too hard. A lot of people wants things handed to them and when it isn't handed to them, they have a great sob story why they can't do the work. You think they hire them because they are cheap, or because the work hard and will do damn near any job because they WANT to provide. You know there's saying, "Worked like a mexican". Only reason people say it is because it's true.

[KYBOY]

People would be amazed at how much drugs come across the border with all those illegals. How many, murderers,rapists and drug dealers. Thats why we have a naturalization process, to weed them out. When the come here illegally they dont get weeded out. Ive dealt with my fair share of them and am sickened at what I have seen.

[Feedman]

I know of farmers who hire illegal's and still take taxes out of their pay checks. They got the information at the courthouse on how to do it.

[SmokeyBear]

I don't buy into the story at all that Americans cant do the work. The problem we have in America now is that the Government has produced a country full of people used to hand outs rather than working for things they need. Before we had so many government handouts people had to work to eat and work to put a roof over their head. Take away the free ride for a lot of people and I guarantee you'll see more Americans picking watermelons.

AMEN WILDMAN!!!

[raktrakr]

So these guys have a house in south Florida and travel from farm to farm while the watermelons are growing, until they hit Indiana, then they go back home to grow tomatoes during the winter. Im not too sure all of them return to Fla. Have you ever been to Frankfort IN.? Theres more mexicans up there than you can shake a stick at, the locals call it "little havanna":eek:

[corndogggy]

Theres more mexicans up there than you can shake a stick at, the locals call it "little havanna":eek:

Wouldn't that make them Cubans? :D

[msubu21]

There are a bunch of Mexicans outside my apartment working now....making repairs, hanging siding. I love going outside and seeing them staring at my wife and then speaking in Spanish.

[hannibal]

sounds kinda insecure.

[raktrakr]

Wouldn't that make them Cubans? :DSame difference:p

[jwoodward]

There are a bunch of Mexicans outside my apartment working now....making repairs, hanging siding. I love going outside and seeing them staring at my wife and then speaking in Spanish.

go out in the yard and shoot your bow a couple groups and yell out keep talking!!:D