Quantcast

Are U.S. Businesses Encouraging Illegal Immigration?

SodaHead Politics April 21, 2011 20:35:40
You!
Add Photos & Videos
The Media Consortium, an independent journalism organization, suggests that U.S. businesses are a major reason that so many illegal immigrants are trying to cross the border, explaining that NAFTA's free trade agreements have taken businesses away from low-wage countries in Latin America.

While NAFTA created considerable economic opportunities for U.S. businesses eager to conduct business in low-wage Mexico, it also allowed American farmers to flood the Mexican market with government-subsidized corn--destroying the country's own corn industry and bankrupting thousands of agricultural workers.

President Obama's most recent tour of Latin America was marked by strong protests and political resistance from lower-class workers eager to renegotiate international trade agreements.

More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/the-media-consortium...

Add a comment above

Top Opinion

  • Lanikai April 22, 2011 00:55:29
    No
    Lanikai
    +14
    they are taking advantage of a situation created by a VERY LAZY federal government.

Sort By
  • Most Raves
  • Least Raves
  • Oldest
  • Newest
Opinions

  • ankhorite May 17, 2011 02:08:31
    Yes
    ankhorite
    Heck, yes. They know they can exploit illegal workers -- pay them under minimum wage, work them illegal hours, deny them breaks, cheat them of their paychecks ENTIRELY sometimes -- and nothing will happen, because the workers can't contact the cops or the feds to complain.
  • tony ankhorite May 17, 2011 05:17:57
    tony
    good point. maybe they're better off in their own country!
  • WankerBait May 16, 2011 21:40:41
    Yes
    WankerBait
    Knowingly and actively hiring illegals absolutely encourages illegal immigration...
  • Lerro DeHazel April 27, 2011 19:32:09
    No
    Lerro DeHazel
    Is dressing provocatively the cause of RAPE?
  • shadow76 April 26, 2011 19:17:06
    Yes
    shadow76
    Also, The Govt, The UN,The Democrats, our enemies.....Roar.....
  • l8rthen April 26, 2011 00:15:41
    Yes
    l8rthen
    Not all businesses and not nec Nafta.
    Want to stop illegals? Take away incentives: Fine for dogcrap out of businesses who hire ppl without legal documentation. It's a start. Also require documentation at schools.
  • Watermusicranger April 24, 2011 19:35:45
    Yes
    Watermusicranger
    Cause they can get away with it
  • pies_Guy April 24, 2011 01:45:15
    Yes
    pies_Guy
    +1
    HELL YES...every fast food restaurant, Regular restaurant, hotel chain and factory in my area is filled with illegals. You can't go into a home depot, sears, etc without everything in english AND spanish...forget about the asian and indian population, polish, greek etc. etc. that also lives in the area...these compaqnies should be HEAVILY fined or boycotted or both. There are millions of U.S. citizens walking around looking for jobs, yet the illegals are happily employed.
  • ankhorite pies_Guy May 17, 2011 02:13:24 (edited)
    ankhorite
    "Happily" employed? No. U.S. companies know they can exploit illegal workers -- pay them under minimum wage, work them illegal hours, deny them breaks, cheat them of their paychecks ENTIRELY sometimes -- and nothing will happen, because the workers can't contact the cops or the feds to complain. So I wouldn't say "happily."

    BTW, you are aware that New York and Chicago have a big problem with illegal immigrants from Ireland working in restaurants and bars? Yep. And did you know that Chicago public high schools used to teach science and math in German to accommodate immigrants from Germany? So why gripe about hearing Spanish? It's not going to hurt you.

    Washington DC still has a Chinatown with street signs IN CHINESE and it's nice -- it's a reminder that Americans are a nation of many nations, "e pluribus unum" (look on your money): "out of many, one." Doesn't matter what language we speak. Take a look at the list of dead soldiers from Afghanistan and Iraq: Hispanic soldiers, Hispanic heroes, Hispanic people who gave their lives for their country: the U.S.A.
  • +velouria+ April 24, 2011 01:06:03
    Yes
    +velouria+
    yes they hire them with out knowing if they are properly documented.
  • MichaelJ April 23, 2011 15:30:07
    No
    MichaelJ
    I said no because there weren't enough choices. Yes businesses hire illegal aliens for several reasons. One of the main reasons is because a great number of American young people refuse to work. especially at minimum wage. Sorry but thats fact. How long has it been since you had an American kid knock on your door asking if he could mow your lawn? Oh no! Thats work for illegal aliens now. We say they are taking American jobs which is bull. They are taking jobs our young people believe is beneath them.

    Another big reason is because our federal government don't enforce laws against business hiring illegal aliens. I know they have well publicized raids every once in awhile but there are plenty of laws on the books that carry substantial penalties to the employer but they are almost never penalized. So for our democrat supporting friends on here, blame those greedy republican businessmen and thats true but let's not forget it's your party who won't enforce the laws on the books. They thirst for those Latino votes and will sell you down the street to get them. So much for the party of the working man!
  • DaveNada April 23, 2011 15:02:00
    Yes
    DaveNada
    cheaper wages
  • jams April 22, 2011 19:32:28
    Yes
    jams
    Of course they did. The same people who sold us out for cheap vegetables they bought at Walmart (where they also bought their Chinese TV's and Malaysian underwear) are the same people who now want to deprive workers children of an education.
  • UN April 22, 2011 19:18:50
    Yes
    UN
    the government may not be doing anything to control the illegal immigration very well. but this should be a duh question or rhetorical one. cause the reason they come here is what? work right? well who has to hire them for work? businesses.so there for businesses hire illegals to cut down on spending, illegals come and get more work for. if the businesses would have never hired them in the first place. if there was no work they would have no reason to be here. they would go the proper channels. also businesses who work in anyway with another business that supports illegals.i have a company. if any illegal walks into my door and i know it. or it come to my attention i have an illegal on my property, i refuse to help them an any way other than out my dang door and onto the streets. then i would call a friend of mind to help them back to their homeland. maybe unethnical but taking jobs from my american family is unethnical illegals have one place to be and that is home. if they want to be here they can do it legally otherwise as far as i am concerned an illegal is an invader of my country and i shoot anyone treaspassing on my property. as a tax payer i own america too. u gotta be a effin idiot to get this confused. and Unamerican do disagree. if we the peopel did our part the fed...
    the government may not be doing anything to control the illegal immigration very well. but this should be a duh question or rhetorical one. cause the reason they come here is what? work right? well who has to hire them for work? businesses.so there for businesses hire illegals to cut down on spending, illegals come and get more work for. if the businesses would have never hired them in the first place. if there was no work they would have no reason to be here. they would go the proper channels. also businesses who work in anyway with another business that supports illegals.i have a company. if any illegal walks into my door and i know it. or it come to my attention i have an illegal on my property, i refuse to help them an any way other than out my dang door and onto the streets. then i would call a friend of mind to help them back to their homeland. maybe unethnical but taking jobs from my american family is unethnical illegals have one place to be and that is home. if they want to be here they can do it legally otherwise as far as i am concerned an illegal is an invader of my country and i shoot anyone treaspassing on my property. as a tax payer i own america too. u gotta be a effin idiot to get this confused. and Unamerican do disagree. if we the peopel did our part the federal government wouldnt have to not do their job. i understand y they dont want to do anythng about it. the people of the U.S. are not doing anything about it should why should they. its your country its your responsibility. the responsibility of every american regardless. no excuse.
    (more)
  • Little.Miss.Mick April 22, 2011 19:14:06
    Yes
    Little.Miss.Mick
    Why do you think part of our economy issue is due to illegal immigration? here is why I say this. When people make things here in the U.S we get money from other companies from exporting as well as circulate money through our own country when our fellow Americans buy American made items. Now with illegal immigrants, its 1) creating higher unemployment 2) causing more people to come over here and continue the process of taking over our country; and 3) allowing our money to be taken out of our economy and regulated into theirs.

    1) one is self explanatory. They get the jobs, we dont

    2) More and more of these illegal immigrants are coming over here without learning our language. As a result, this country has somehow decided that we are going to give them a break by first making everything have spanish subtitles. Next we have taken out the Spanish subtitles and the English writings and rewritten signs and billboards, etc in Spanish with English subtitles. Now we are seeing things in just plain Spanish, no english subtitles. Next it will be mandatory for everyone to study the "complete" Mexican history, no Spanish fluently, and everybody else will be non-in-void.

    3) when illegals come over, a lot of them leave their families behind, with intentions of bringing them later. But f...
    Why do you think part of our economy issue is due to illegal immigration? here is why I say this. When people make things here in the U.S we get money from other companies from exporting as well as circulate money through our own country when our fellow Americans buy American made items. Now with illegal immigrants, its 1) creating higher unemployment 2) causing more people to come over here and continue the process of taking over our country; and 3) allowing our money to be taken out of our economy and regulated into theirs.

    1) one is self explanatory. They get the jobs, we dont

    2) More and more of these illegal immigrants are coming over here without learning our language. As a result, this country has somehow decided that we are going to give them a break by first making everything have spanish subtitles. Next we have taken out the Spanish subtitles and the English writings and rewritten signs and billboards, etc in Spanish with English subtitles. Now we are seeing things in just plain Spanish, no english subtitles. Next it will be mandatory for everyone to study the "complete" Mexican history, no Spanish fluently, and everybody else will be non-in-void.

    3) when illegals come over, a lot of them leave their families behind, with intentions of bringing them later. But for the time being while the rest of their family is still in Mexico they are bringing in money and sending it straight to their families. Now the moral/motive is not a sin because they are trying to help their families, but they are taking that money out of our economy and not regulating money into our economy. Its a give and take system, but they are taking and not giving.

    Now before people start saying I am a racist, i want to point this out, I am not. I admire those who come over here and actually ATTEMPT to become legal. Those who come over here without a regard for this country and dont try to become legal, dont care, and dont at least learn our language, have no respect from me. They should be considered a shame for slapping those who come over here and work hard to become legal in the face.

    This country is becoming too soft...well it has become too soft already. To give an example: if you go to France without knowing any French they will look down on you, talk about you, and refuse to give you any help. The thing that is funny about it is that everyone in France knows English, most just refuse to speak it. But if you go and you have learned at least the basics they will at least help you or talk to you. Their country is if you dont know the language or know some of the language, then dont come! Why cant we do that?

    Lastly and I apologize for the length of this post, but we sit here and worry about learning all this Spanish when the top language in the World is Chinese....Yes Spanish is in the top 5 along with Arabic and French, English and Russian. But its not the ONLY language we should learn. If we are a fair country then we need to stop schools from dropping french and other languages down to only ESL and Spanish...it deprives our students
    (more)
  • Old Timer April 22, 2011 19:07:28 (edited)
    Yes
    Old Timer
    +1
    Should never have stopped shooting at the border like we did years ago. Why is your question NOT the same as the one I clicked on to get here???
  • ankhorite Old Timer May 17, 2011 02:16:39
    ankhorite
    You sound like you miss the good old days of the Berlin Wall, in which East Germany would shoot people on sight for trying to cross the border.

    Listen to yourself.
  • Old Timer ankhorite May 17, 2011 14:05:29
    Old Timer
    Think about how many of them are shooting US citizens after they get here. Check the incarceration statistics to see what percentage of violent criminals are also illegals.
  • Johnnyknowvote April 22, 2011 19:05:23
    Yes
    Johnnyknowvote
    Just like Jane Mansfield is to blame for Manson.
  • srini April 22, 2011 18:39:06 (edited)
    No
    srini
    +1
    It's not NAFTA that took business away from those countries but their underlying corruption, considered in many cases worse than the Licence-Raj--a fact that PuffHo never considers!

    While many US businesses do take advantage of lower (or for-cash) wages, that is more of a byproduct than a cause of illegal immigration. The causes are rather simply that US is seen as more prosperous (and more conducive to making living) than their own countries (which is also true of much less-prosperous India as seen by those of its neighbour Bangladesh continuously since 1971) combined with US government not enforcing its own immigration laws (and many Congress/Senate members being in favour of amnestying existing illegal aliens, which encourages even more to buck the laws).

    Blaming the US for their own being FUBAR (they were this way prior to Reagan's victory in 1980, let alone implementation of NAFTA in 1993) is not new!
  • John T. April 22, 2011 18:31:38
    Yes
    John T.
    +2
    Yes, illegal immigrants are better cared for in this country than any other in the world. They know that they have a very good chance of getting employment that pays much more in their home country, have better living conditions and can get State and federal aid if they get sick and free transportation home if caught.
  • Bo April 22, 2011 18:27:16 (edited)
    Yes
    Bo
    +1
    Very much so from the Government on down they are encouraging illegal immigration. The Government in all but a few instances almost refuses to enforce anything at all. Companies large and small can save millions of Dollars by hiring an illegal by either paying them out of pocket and keeping it off the books, or by reduced wages,or even by not having to carry insurance and benefits programs. Then there is the issue of welfare, county services (hospitals, assistance programs, etc.), and schooling of kids of illegal parents. As well as renting houses and many more. If you want to deal with an illegal immigration problem begin at the source.....and that is the incintive to come in the first place. You take away the jobs, services and eliminate schooling and even the Anchor baby issue and enforce the law illegal immigration goes away no reform needed.
  • Vaius April 22, 2011 18:16:39 (edited)
    Yes
    Vaius
    Although I do find it strange how people talk about illegal immigration taking away our jobs but don't really say anything about outsourcing of jobs.

    If we somehow got rid of hiring of illegal immigrants AND outsourcing, there would be even more jobs available and the recession probably wouldn't be as bad.

    The only problem is figuring out how to get 90s trained business men to hire the more-costly American citizens. Especially considering the 90s training told you to "Listen to the numbers! If the numbers say firing people will increase profits because you have to pay less people, do it! Only profits matter!"
  • william... Vaius April 22, 2011 19:14:33
    william keegan
    I agree with you, in a perfect world illegal immigrants and outsourcing of jobs should not exist. But we don’t live in a perfect world.

    Your response indicates you have a problem with business making profits. Here’s a clue, if business doesn’t make a profit it will cease to exist! The ONLY purpose of a business is profit! All other motivations will lead to extinction. The “not for profit” segment lives on either government or personal donations.

    If a CEO of a business can increase the profits of the business by outsourcing, he/she should be fired if outsourcing is not undertaken.

    The problem in this country is that the government, spurred on by liberal/progressive ideology, has screwed up private business, by its over regulation and punitive taxation, to the extent that business ends up sacrificing legitimate profit so much by having to pay for legal and technical advice on how to operate the business is such a way as to avoid government interference. The result is, to make a decent profit the leaders of the business have to resort to schemes like outsourcing.
  • Vaius william... April 23, 2011 14:07:47 (edited)
    Vaius
    I'm not saying profits are bad. I just don't think they should have to go to outsourcing and the such to get profits/more profits.

    About that regulation thing, wasn't the whole point of private business that, you know... it's private? Not entirely regulated by government?
  • DuncanONeil April 22, 2011 18:13:12
    No
    DuncanONeil
  • Rudy April 22, 2011 17:55:37
    No
    Rudy
    +1
    The US government is, each party wants to be to say we gave you your citizenship & therefore you owe us your votes. Unfortunately for the republicans the democrats will give them plenty of gifts so they won't have to work & will keep them stupid just like they do for blacks & gays.
  • Boss Rudy April 22, 2011 19:07:56
    Boss
    gays???we must not know many gays....
  • Rudy Boss September 23, 2011 14:38:06
    Rudy
    really don't want to.
  • carolinmd April 22, 2011 17:53:00
    Yes
    carolinmd
    If U.S. businesses were not hiring illegals, they would have little reason to keep on crossing our borders and taking our jobs.
  • Lanikai carolinmd April 22, 2011 19:16:02
    Lanikai
    Yes, they do, a big reason is free healthcare, and free welfare. Free housing, food, electric, cell phones and healthcare, JUST LIKE Us citizens get.
  • barbcherek April 22, 2011 17:52:30
    Yes
    barbcherek
    +1
    Boot their butts back to Mexico where they belong. Obama thought it would help his election. . . better start paking your bags Obama.
  • Boss barbcherek April 22, 2011 19:08:56
    Boss
    why is obama blamed for all the illegals??why are you anti obama nuts so STUPID!!
  • Lanikai Boss April 22, 2011 19:17:50
    Lanikai
    He has done nothing to fix the problem, and is, in fact, suing Arizona for daring to implement their own immigration plan to try to stop the invasion.
  • barbcherek Boss April 22, 2011 21:07:25
    barbcherek
    Because he figures he can get all their votes but thank God over half of them can't stand him. Why are you so much in favor of him since he IS THE WORST PRESIDENT WE HAVE EVER OR EVER WILL HAVE.
  • davyd god loving patriot April 22, 2011 17:38:05
    No
    davyd god loving patriot
    +1
    nobama and the democrats are to blame. Just wait Americans are going to be forced to try to sneak into Mexico for a job. Because the democrats are sending our jobs to other countries, because you are stupid and need nobama to decide for you
  • JackoClubs April 22, 2011 17:25:40
    Yes
    JackoClubs
    +1
    ...because we won't take serious steps to guard our borders.
  • Ghostfinder April 22, 2011 17:22:28
    Yes
    Ghostfinder
    we are to blame for not enforcing immigration law. We are to blame for not deporting every illegal of any race color or ethnicity we catch we are at fault for not building a real border, we are at fault for not realizing the amendment to the Constitutions did not mean anchor babies.
  • lester1 Ghostfi... April 22, 2011 20:58:26
    lester1
    Bingo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!...
  • cornbread April 22, 2011 16:57:55
    Yes
    cornbread
    Arrest and find those who hire illegals.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ... 11 Next » Last »

See Votes by State

The map above displays the winning answer by region.
Loading map...

News & Politics

May 25, 2012 17:58:07