Time to come and get the jobs!
Oct 19, 2011, 8:28 AM
Listen to Dave Ross Commentary: Time to come and get the jobs!
“Kick the immigrants out! Free up those jobs for American workers!” We’ve heard that again and again. Politicians have called for walls, troops, surveillance — all to keep out the people who are taking American jobs.
It’s the issue that started the fight between Mitt Romney and Rick Perry in last night’s Republican debate:
“You had illegals working on your property,” said Perry.
Nonsense said Romney:
“We hired a lawn company to mow our lawn, and they had illegal immigrants that were working there. We let them go.”
So there! The federal government has deported almost 400,000 people in the past year. Several states now let the cops demand citizenship papers from anyone they stop.
And all for a noble purpose — so that out-of-work Americans have a chance at those jobs. That’s what we’ve been TOLD anyway.
Except that in Alabama, which has the toughest un-Welcome mat for immigrants — employers report “huge” shortages. Construction jobs, poultry plants, farms — those eager Americans aren’t showing up.
In Georgia — with unemployment above 10%– 5,200 farm jobs EMPTY.
And in Washington State, the nation’s apple capital — despite offers to pay up to $150 a day — a farmers rep called the harvest “bleak.”
Now, we’re not going to starve. It’s just weird to see politicians who LOVE small business and hate regulation, pushing regulations to hurt small business for the sake of opening up jobs to Americans who we now know are NOT TAKING THEM.
Well, except for one job.
“I don’t think I’ve ever hired an illegal in my life,” said Romney.
The job of mowing Mitt Romney’s lawn is now safely in American hands.
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Tune in to KIRO Newsradio weekdays at 5am for Dave Ross on Seattle's Morning News.
