Problem is mom and pop sugar cane farmer is already being squeezed out by the free trade agreement with S. America. As it was they were barely making a living. Sorry but they just can't afford to pay higher wages to help process the cane for shipment.

No, very few people on welfare will take these jobs around here. I'm not stereotyping but I see it everyday. McDonald's is offering a 2,000 dollar signing bonus in and around New Orleans to serve fucking fries. You would think they're would be a line of people trying to get that. Nope. Most people on welfare don't want to work. I said most not all.

I think it's pretty disturbing that people can't express their opinions around here without being labeled a racist.

I, for one, understand both sides of the argument. But ultimately believe that illegal immigrants should be penalized for marching in the streets of this country waving their flags and trying to intimidate our government.

OPA! needs to change his screen-name to Pim Fortyn.

wow. dont even know where to start with this one.

Why don't you start with this:

Good read.

I'll throw a question out: How does one go about about changing the underlying economic forces that make this situation happen? That is, if there's a gain to be had by paying someone 1/2 what a job's worth, then the employer will pay it. And if our "1/2" is someone else's "4x" then that someone will make the trip and seek that work. The two will find one another, and the worker will do heavy, dangerous work for what the employer considers naught.

As long as that exists, it's gonna happen. IS there a way to change that? Because everything else just seems like trying to stop the tide. Like OPA and a tender young in-law relative, you can't fight the attraction between two willing parties.

Well, the government could subsidize Sugar Cane in Louisiana like it does in the Iowa(Man, it must be nice to have that 1st primary) and fully fund the rebuilding of New Orleans and that would go along way to solve the problems here. It's not always about trying to make more money. Just about staying in business and provide goods domestically.

I can't to hear something GOOD about Louisiana for once. Christ. I mean, are we not shitting where we eat?

american farmers already have ridiculous subsidies. wheat and rice prices are at record lows because of these huge subsidies, not to mention the eu, who also have huge subsidies. i would hope any more of this would get the us into the wto to defend their actions.

In my mind, there isn't a whole lot we can do, except to realize that a sizeable portion of our economy relies on them and a vast majority of the mexican economy relies on immigrants sending back american wages.

The best situation is to hand out more temporary work permits and to encourage people to enter through proper border entries rather than be smuggled across or sneak across. I think it is just better to be able to keep tabs on these people as they enter, so we can have a better estimate of how many people are seeking these jobs.

They also have to allow those that are currently living here illegally to have a period of amnesty when they can seek and gain legal status without much struggle.
I'm sure some foreign labor minimum wage statute should be passed, so that they can legally be paid below average wages, but also make enough to insure the government isn't paying alot in welfare, medicaid, etc.

As much as I hate the government view of Louisiana, I can't entirely blame them. It's our fault too. I wouldn't trust with the money either, and we always seem to snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory. Also, we have no unions here because that just doesn't fit our cultural idealogoy. The only thing we can successfully organize is a party. God, I'm bitter.

American farmers are subsidized not Louisiana farmers. You can't make a living anymore down here in Sugar or Seafood. I understand the global problem with subsizdation but I care more about my neighbor. Sorry if that's assholish, but it's true. Also, what is the country gonna do if there is no reason to produce anything here anymore.

In this sense, Martin Luther King was trying to intimidate the government, abotion right-to-life protestors are trying to intimidate the governement, the protests against the war in Iraq are trying to intimidate the government, gay-rights marches for equity and marriage are trying to intimidate the government...

This kind of "intimidation" is our birthright. It's called the First Amendment. And the Constitution specifically includes all in its protections, not just citizens.

Increased economic development in Mexico. A Marshall Plan of economic development that will create jobs there. (and of course Harry would suggest that it be socialist and critical, not simply expansion of multi-national corporations structuring development for their increased capital).

Other than that, you are right... economic osmosis, or immigration gravity... the laws of human living surpercede the ideas of fences and documents.

I swear I alluded to this...this is one of those situations that you just ain't gonna make everyone happy, but there has to be a solution that gets at the greater good instead of pandering.

I never thought of that. Equalizing out the pressure... Granted, there will always be inequality, but tipping that seesaw back a little closer to level would go a loooong way.

Don't we do a lot for their economy now? (not bitching). I'm actually wondering - I honestly don't know, other than NAFTA and Maquiladora (sp?) operations. What would you be picturing? Because it seems to me that we either spend the money here fighting it, or we spend it there preventing it. And, unlike the "drug war," we could actually have an impact on Mexico's economic situation if we really got after it.

When I was in highschool I lost a friend (a girl I actually had a crush on) to a drunk driver. Turns out the guy was an illegal who had been arrested for drunk driving in the States before & had been deported.

18th street gang allegdly the biggest gang in LA with some estimated 40,000 members half of them are estimated to be here illegally. The LAPD can't legally ask them if they're legal or not until after they're arrested.

Now I know the criminal element is only a small % of illegal aliens. But it seems to me that legitimizing the ones who are working by making them guest workers & fixing the border so when the criminal element can't get back in when they are shipped out is pretty damn obvious. It's realistic too. No gestapo roundups, the criminals are arrested as thier arrested like normal. Once they're shipped out a new border makes it a lot tougher for them to make it back. No unrealistic pipe dreams that this countries economy can survive without the cheap labor migrant & sometime illegal aliens provide.

mexico has problems a marshall plan type thing cant help. corruption is rampant, the police are crooked, and (until recently) the currency couldnt be relied on. vincente fox was voted in to fix these things, and he has been totally unable to change anything, because theyre so deeply entrenched.

thx for handling that more maturely than i would have harry. "intimidating the government" opa? are you serious? would you rather live in a country where intimidating the government is illegal?

as far as the flags, i thought it was a beautiful image. i didn't immediately view it as a calculated effort to not have various south american flags, but at the time it seemed to me like these people truly want to be americain, to be a part of the country and to take advantage of everything we have.

it's just too easy to think about the mexican restaurant you go to where nobody speaks english when there are so many stories like the ones harry is posting about. the other question is that if it really bothers you that you can't communicate with them why not learn some spanish? you think they should learn english, but they don't seem to be the ones that are bothered by it.

and i love the AMERICAN.

hahha. that's going to be good fodder for dinner conversation tonight.

this should not surprise you dude. there are idiots on here that like to jump to conclusions.

well, if the hood fits...

Kinda like saved saying anything and you calling him a homophobe, OPA!?

And dalen, you're just mad I thought of that license plate before you.

AKIA? AYAK!

proving once again, you're an idiot.

and yes Loog, dat shit was funny.

its a fucking sad state of affairs when protesting in this country is viewed as intimidating the government. thomas jefferson is rolling in his grave.