Glendora, CA 91741

December 16, 2006

[email protected]

Secretary Michael Chertoff

U.S. Department of Homeland Security

Washington, D.C. 20528

Dear Secretary Chertoff:  Re: ICE raids on meatpacking plants in six states

Paraphrasing your comments about the above raids, you said these crackdowns  highlighted a need for a guest-worker program, which would cut down on the demand for illegal documents. In reality, these raids, if the Administration allows ICE to continue with them, will provide much-needed employment possibilities for unskilled American workers.

One of the most factually incorrect notions surrounding the illegal immigration controversy is that there’s an economic need for foreign guest workers. In reality there is no such need.

It's a myth that Americans won't do hard labor. The truth is that Americans won't live two families in a garage, or 20 in a trailer, and suffer similar indignities just to sell their first-world labors at third-world levels. It’s bottom-of-the-barrel wage rates, not hard work, that unskilled American workers reject. The labor segment represented by illegals contributes less than 4% of our total national output. Illegal immigrants act as subsidies to businesses that employ unskilled workers, holding down labor costs while taxpayers pick-up the horrendous costs of providing services to a much larger poor and low-income population.

The President’s “willing worker” non-sequitur illustrates just how badly the need for foreign guest workers has metastasized. A “willing worker” is generally a desperately poor unskilled individual from the third-world seeking almost any kind of work. A “willing employer” is generally a mercenary and conniving firm or individual offering employment to willing workers at non-living wages and terrible working conditions. In short, “willing employers” are American employers who won’t hire unskilled American workers because they can hire “willing employees” at a fraction of the cost. This is a marriage made-in-hell, on the backs of innocent American workers and taxpayers.

I’ve attached a breakdown of illegal alien penetration of the American work force. If you keep-up these raids, unskilled American workers will benefit. If the Administration slaps handcuffs on ICE’s efforts, Americas will continue to suffer.

Sincerely,

Signed: Michael Scott

Illegal Immigrant Displacement of American Workers

The Pew Hispanic Center released a report in March, 2006, which estimated that illegal alien workers perform:

•25% of all agricultural jobs

•17% of all office and house cleaning positions

•14% all construction jobs

•12% of all food preparation jobs

This means that:

•75% of agriculture jobs are filled by Americans/legal residents

•83% of house cleaning jobs are filled by Americans/legal residents

•86% of construction jobs are filled by Americans/legal residents

•88% of food preparation jobs are filled by Americans/legal residents

Slavery will never be legally reinstituted, but for some American business the millions of illegal aliens are the next best thing: Illegal foreigners accept exploitation, don't complain about hazardous conditions, work for sub-living wages and don't demand expensive benefits.