According to Pew Research, there are 11 million illegal/undocumented (ill/undocs) immigrants in the US, with 7.8 million in the workforce, roughly 5% of all US workers. The US Labor Department reports that 40% of farm workers are ill/undocs. In construction, the figure is 20%. Without them, crops don’t get planted or picked, and homes don’t get built or repaired. If you don’t like inflation at the supermarket, imagine how lower supplies would cause prices to skyrocket.
Would requiring E-verify eliminate this discrepancy? Only if all parties fully complied. Many ill/undocs use false documents or are paid off the books. In spite of employer assurances that they are in full compliance with the law, they realize hiring ill/undocs means they keep operating expenses low, thus increasing their profits. Ill/undocs won’t be forming any unions to demand better wages, hours, and working conditions since they have to remain in the shadows of the law.
Those seeking asylum for political or religious reasons can get work permits, but only after 180 days of entering the US (with exceptions). Violations result in deportation.
The current bipartisan Dignity Bill on immigration reform languishes in Congress because convicted felon Donald Trump ordered his MAGA acolytes to keep the crisis active to help him win the election. Don’t believe MAGA propaganda that executive orders would solve the problem. Immigration requires Congressional action through legislation.
According to Homeland Security, 80% of all ill/undocs have lived here since before 2010. Thus many have worked the same jobs for years. Furthermore, providing a new guest worker status would mean ill/undocs would pay into FICA and help extend Social Security.
Our very low unemployment rate is actually an unemployable rate for those who can’t pass a drug test, do not have a high school diploma or GED, or have a criminal record. Ill/undocs “stealing” jobs? Rubbish.
Trump pledges that, if elected, he will deport all ill/undocs. More rubbish. Remember his previous blather about “a beautiful wall” paid for by Mexico. Businesses employing ill/undocs would be down his throat for reducing their labor supply and subsequent profits.
Trump himself has employed ill/undocs in his businesses, most notably the 1980 building of Trump Tower Manhattan. Such chicanery has allowed him to reside in an opulent ocean mansion at Mar-A-Lago protected by, of course, “a beautiful wall.” Deplorable.
ED ENGLER, Sebring, Fla.
During the National Association of Black Journalists’ interview of The Former Guy, the criminal candidate’s complaining accusations against immigrants became wilder, weirder and more exaggerated. We could see him making up more and more ominous lies as his hands played an invisible accordion. The fact that crime statistics for immigrants are far lower than for the general population didn’t retard his fire-hose of lies.
But one fact should be repeated, over and over, until the public fully realizes how cynical and destructive the whining Grump’s mendacity is. A bipartisan bill to allocate more resources to our borders — for both enforcement and for more judges to determine whose claims for asylum are valid — had passed the Senate, but DonOld Grump told his Republicans to kill the bill in the House because he didn’t want the problem solved while Biden was president.
BRUCE JOFFE, Piedmont, Calif.
Another fine issue on 8/15 — I really liked the Ed Rampell piece (“Still Advertising for Himself: The Norman and the Dead”).
But Thom Hartmann’s column (“The GOP’s Secret Agenda for America’s Future’”) had some real loose end assertions, specifically:
1. 10 million immigrants will be going into concentration camps.
That would take the entire U.S. Army to set up and police the areas. Plus the ICE family facilities are not death camps.
2. The working poor are over half the Americans.
All census data places the working poor at about 4% of the labor force. This comes to about 6 million workers, not pretty but not half the workforce.
3. 500,000 medical bankruptcies.
I hate medical debt as much as anyone, but facts are facts. The total number of bankruptcies from all sources in the USA is about 500,000 in 2022. Could all of them be caused by medical care?
There is no easy way to know the answer. Elizabeth Warren and David Himmelstein have tried, but conclusions are elusive. Most bankrupt people do have medical debt, but they have all kinds of other debts and the cause of bankruptcy is not crystal clear.
I declared bankruptcy years ago. I had $3,000 of medical debts but that is not what tipped me over.
For what it’s worth, bankruptcy does not necessarily destroy people as Hartmann asserts. It makes their lives better in a lot of cases, including mine.
BOB HERTZ, St. Paul, Minn.
But for serial blunders by Democratic Party leadership Trump would have never have come within 200 miles of the White House.
1992: Unfortunately, Bill Clinton’s NAFTA treaty decimated communities and left millions unable to earn a decent living. Failing to provide aid to soften their hardship was a terrible mistake, which soured millions on government and powered a GOP upsurge.
2008: “Be the Change,” Obama was elected president, and Democrats controlled both House and Senate for two years However, the only people-friendly legislation enacted was the anemic Affordable Care Act. By failing to champion real change, the party leadership squandered its opportunity to prove it cared about average Jills and Joes.
2016 (and 2020): Democratic Party leaders did everything they could to keep Bernie Sanders from becoming the party’s presidential candidate. They were epic failures in “reading the room.” Imagine the stupidity of twice rejecting Sanders, who was the most popular politician in America, and who would have easily beaten Trump.
2016: It should have been an easy win for Clinton, but, ever the elite, she defeated herself. Instead of getting out and meeting common folks, she gave Wall Streeters $200K speeches, and branded downtrodden-millions as deplorables. So we got four years of inept Trump governance, tax cuts for billionaires and a rogue Supreme Court.
2024: For the good of party and country Biden should have stepped aside early to allow selection of a younger candidate. It would have invigorated the Democratic base and made Trump the man too old to serve.
So, blunder by blunder, Democratic leaders have repeatedly and devastatingly ceded power to the GOP. It’s a sorry history of leadership failures that could result in four more years of Trump, and the loss of our Democracy.
THOMAS McKEE, Cary N.C.
After the assassination attempt, Trump said: “God alone prevented the unthinkable from happening.” But why then did God allow the unthinkable to happen to the retired firefighter who was killed at the rally?
Does God have favorites, and does God use the same approach as the U.S. and Israeli governments, that certain people are expendable as “collateral damage”? Is God saying, “Got to save Trump, but the retired firefighter can die, he’s expendable.” Could God work this way?
Why would God protect Trump but not children in Gaza? Why would God protect an old man who was caught on tape saying he would grab and grope women between the legs, sexually assault them, and had every right to do it because he was famous? Why would God protect a sicko like this and then not protect innocents in Gaza?
This is about narcissism and mental illness, not just for Trump, but for all those who believe God did save him.
FRANK ERICKSON, Minneapolis, Minn.
Donald Trump’s first term demonstrated his incompetence. His careless managing of COVID-19 was blamed for 180,000 of the 450,000 coronavirus deaths that occurred while he was in office, a study by Lancet found in 2021.
Obviously, he is not fit to be a president. His disgusting life is riddled with inappropriate behavior. He has had two divorces, his businesses have had six bankruptcies. He has cheated contractors and disparaged our military after dodging the draft.
He has exaggerated his income tax. He was found liable for the sexual assault of a woman. He has been found guilty of 34 felonies. While president he was noted for telling more than 30,000 lies.
He was impeached twice and now faces trial for stealing mountains of US government top secret files that belong in government archives, not in his closet. He is also facing trial for encouraging the mob he assembled to revolt against our government on Jan. 6, 2021.
He also attempted to steal his victory from a Democratic win in Georgia in 2020. He also faces trial for trying to upset the Democratic victory.
His clueless followers are attempting to vote for him with the purpose of destroying our democracy, a path Trump has freely admitted.
RICHARD B. HYMAN, Stillwater, N.J.
When a contender for the presidency tells us he’ll be a dictator for no more than one day, what in the name of all that is sane are we to think?
Do remember, dear reader, that much grief for millions of fellow citizens can be wrought in a single day. Declaration of martial law, for example, and suspension of the Constitution.
In the unlikely happenstance that the far-fetched promise is kept, majoritarian governance would be forfeited here and thoughout what remains of the free world.
History demonstrates that supreme rulers don’t surrender their power voluntarily and wholly of their own accord.
WILLIAM DAUENHAUER, Willowick, Ohio
“Stupidity seems to be a requisite character trait for every Fox News host hired, but comments by Jesse Watters about “mommies issues” July 30 gives credence to the most “stupidified” Dumbo ever to don the educational dunce camp that one would believe he had been living in a cave for most of his “stupidified” life and just left it the day prior to the day Fox determined, oh yeah, this guy’s going to piss a lot of people off. We need more idiotic attention! Ratings? Fagettaboutit!
This low-life, arrogant, ignorant denier of our evolution or the advancements and enhancement for societal betterments for humanity and all of the disproven lies and propaganda (males/men) have been citing ever since their creation of religion and their very first biblical precept, Genesis and all of its testosterone-ladened anthropocentric, misogynistic mindsets of superior being B.S. chosen by God B.S. and females lesser beings B.S., where be women’s mere existence is dependent on “males/men’s rib” for life itself B.S. This is exactly what all male idiots on Fox News believe and they’ve been spouting their arrogant ignorance every opportunity they get to proudly display their “stupidity” ad nauseam. It’s time he’s made to wear a dunce cap when on the air.
FRANK C. ROHRIG, Milford, Conn.
From The Progressive Populist, September 1, 2024
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