You are not wrong on your examples, but you paint a very incomplete picture. One of, if not the, largest employers of immigrant labor is agriculture. Whether it’s tree planting crews, tassling crews, harvest crews and so on. I’ve been in and around AG all my life. I can tell you with certainty that American city kids, with very few exceptions, will not work that hard, regardless of the pay. Without immigrant labor, much of this work would simply not get done.
I’m 64 and I have a hard time finding someone in their 20’s or 30’s that will work as hard as I do. I was thinning trees with my daughter’s boyfriend a few years ago. He ended up collapsing and puking his guts out. He was a gym rat and in really good shape. He was off to marine basic the following week. I’ll bet they tuned him up! The Mexican crews we get are unreal. They flat wear me out just watching them. Those folks know what hard work means.
I've been around AG my entire life as well; former FFA district president, degree in agriculture, own a farm and besides owning my own business I am also a University employee tasked with answering agriculture issues for producers.
You are correct about American city kids - These days it seems that most of them are only children who have had parents helicopter over them so they live a consequence and sweat free existence; while oddly enough paying money to workout in a gym.
As for the "They pick our lettuce" argument.......
1. Less than 1% of all illegal immigrants are involved in agriculture work, but 44% of farm laborers are illegal immigrants - Very Telling.
2. Mechanization is changing agriculture FAST - When is the last time you heard of a human being harvesting sugarcane in the USA? The Florida Crystals Corporation imported THOUSANDS of Haitians into south Florida to harvest sugarcane and when they got replaced by machines the workers were allowed to stay.
3. Means and methods - farming succulents(especially lettuce) is being moved to hydroponic cultivation and it truly is a superior product that is much more efficient, better for the environment, lowers transportation cost/loss and is much less labor intensive. - So in 10 years we are going to be needing much less farm labor than we do now.
4. Exploitation - Every farmer/rancher I've ever met loves to moan about how they don't make any money, but I know some that make FORTUNES; oddly enough the greater the wealth of farmers the more willing they are to turn a blind eye to exploitation and especially so when it comes to labor contractors who are generally the anchor babies of 1st generation illegals and these labor contractors are the modern slave drivers and YES physical violence is still very much used as a motivation...... I've seen these people first hand in agriculture and excavation, they make their money on human suffering and I wish the federal government would step into dealing with this human tracking.
What's the answer? A organized farm labor union just like Cesar Chavez wanted, but he could never get it because employers would rather exploit desperate illegals than deal with a legal organized workforce.
These programs already exist - Such as the program for South American sheep herders that are allowed to come and work in the USA and are the ones responsible for maintaining flocks of sheep on the vast ranches and leases in the western U.S.A.
