SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
NPR has an August 23rd, 2018 story about the original "A-TEAM" (Athletes in Temporary Employment as Agricultural Manpower), a 1965 project to replace migrant workers with high school kids on summer break.
The year was 1965. On Cinco de Mayo, newspapers across the country reported that Secretary of Labor W. Willard Wirtz wanted to recruit 20,000 high schoolers to replace the hundreds of thousands of Mexican agricultural workers who had labored in the United States under the so-called Bracero Program. Started in World War II, the program was an agreement between the American and Mexican governments that brought Mexican men to pick harvests across the U.S. It ended in 1964, after years of accusations by civil rights activists like Cesar Chavez that migrants suffered wage theft and terrible working and living conditions.
But farmers complained — in words that echo today's headlines — that Mexican laborers did the jobs that Americans didn't want to do, and that the end of [the program] meant that crops would rot in the fields.
[...] the national press was immediately skeptical. "Dealing with crops which grow close to the ground requires a good deal stronger motive" than money or the prospects of a good workout, argued a Detroit Free Press editorial. "Like, for instance, gnawing hunger."
[One group] got paid minimum wage — $1.40 an hour back then — plus 5 cents for every crate filled with about 30 to 36 [melons.] [Students] worked six days a week, with Sundays off, and they were not allowed to return home during their stint. The farmers sheltered them in... "defunct housing" [according to one student].
Problems arose immediately... In California's Salinas Valley, 200 teenagers... quit after just two weeks on the job... Students elsewhere staged strikes. At the end, the A-TEAM was considered a giant failure and was never tried again.
[Stony Brook University history professor Lori A. Flores] says the A-TEAM "reveals a very important reality: It's not about work ethic [for undocumented workers]. It's about [the fact] that this labor is not meant to be done under such bad conditions and bad wages."
The kids gave up their summer vacations, worked in 110 degree heat six days a week, slept with no air conditioning, and ate subsistence rations, for nearly no benefit; it's no wonder the program was not a rousing success.
In tangentially-related news, the U.S. Libertarian Party published a press release the day before entitled "Immigrants Benefit the United States" that makes the blanket assertion "Immigrants, almost across the board, are a net value to the United States."
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 24 2018, @08:31AM (5 children)
There are 3 - 5 million illegal immigrants here from Europe who have overstayed their visas or otherwise blended into our society. These are not people taking jobs picking crops, washing dishes or mowing lawns. They are taking good paying, skilled labor jobs away from Americans. These are the people who endanger the American middle class. They should be the first to go.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 24 2018, @01:37PM
Holy fuck, you know fuck all about immigrants. Such idiotic dribble.
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Runaway1956 on Friday August 24 2018, @02:34PM (3 children)
I'm not going to argue your "facts". I will offer you my own. When Bill Clinton was in office, it was estimated that there were 20 million illegals in this country. When Bush was in office, that number didn't change - still 20 million - DESPITE the fact that some estimates said a couple thousand were coming in DAILY! When Obama was in office, we were still told 20 million. With Trump in office, we're still being told 20 million. OBVIOUSLY NO ONE IN GOVERNMENT OR MSM CAN COUNT WORTH A DAMN!!
Some of you are quite outspoken in your opinion that I am not the sharpest tool in the shed. But, FFS, I can add 20 million to a million here, a million there, a couple more million somewhere else - and come up with fifty fucking million, and more.
So - uhhhhhmmmmm - how important are your 3 to 5 million illegal Euro invaders, compared to 50 million Mexicans?
Now, allow me to point out here - I have not dismissed your ~4 million illegal Euros. I won't defend them. They broke the law? Catch them, prosecute them, and deport their Euro asses - their WHITE Euro asses. Go for it, you have my full support.
Just don't try to distract attention away from our porous southern border, and 50 million invaders.
(Score: 2) by Whoever on Friday August 24 2018, @02:55PM (2 children)
So how many illegal immigrants do you think are in the USA now? 100M? 150M?
Perhaps you are an illegal immigrant and you just don't know it?
It's not like immigrants (legal and illegal) die or return to their home countries. Oh, wait. They do!
I still remember when the USA would not deport someone wanted for terrorism charges in Northern Ireland by the UK. Not only an illegal immigrant, but an actual terrorist. But, yeah, there is no racism involved in the way USA enforces its immigration policies and laws.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday August 24 2018, @03:37PM (1 child)
I used fifty million above - that's what I think it is. But, the whole point of this little exercise, is that NO ONE KNOWS! The talking heads have been stuck on that 20 million number for more than 30 years now. It is an established talking point.
Where else have we seen an established talking point that never changes, despite the fact that it MUST CHANGE?!?!
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2010/04/us-government-finally-admits-most-piracy-estimates-are-bogus/ [arstechnica.com]
Point is - if those numbers don't fluctuate, then THEY ARE BOGUS!
I'm tired of beign lied to. Someone, somewhere, arrived at twenty million as a "comfortable", or "acceptable" figure. And, it hasn't changed in thirty freaking years. We're simply not supposed to notice the flood, then the trickle, then the flood again, then the trickle that continues to flow. None of us are supposed to be able to add things up, to discover the claims are all bogus.
As for your Irish terrorists - they aren't current events. Sorry, they're just a distraction here.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Whoever on Friday August 24 2018, @05:24PM
How many people do you think cross the border illegally every day? 1000?
Let's run with that. That's 365,000 border crossings per year.
What's the average time an illegal spends in the USA? Some are quickly caught, so their time is effectively zero. For others, let's assume an average age at which they cross is 30. Average lifetime is ~70 years, so they spend an average of 40 years in the USA. Note that this is a huge over-estimate, because people choose to leave the USA, or are deported. Others become legal citizens.
Out of that 20M, with an average life of 70 years, 500,000 die every year. That's more than the number I used for new entrants, so at 1000/day, the number of illegals would be dropping.
So, let me agree that the 20M is wrong, but it is actually an overestimate.