Immigration Confusion
I am totally confused. Now that shouldn’t surprise anyone but my confusion relates to the issue of immigration…legal or illegal. I have lots of good friends in agriculture and obviously, like all of us, I want to see agriculture thrive all over the country. And when you talk with agricultural experts as in growers, economists, politicians, dairy and cattlemen, they’ll make a very strong argument that their very survival depends on the availability of a labor force. Further, the majority of that labor force is comprised of people from other countries (primarily South of the border) because we can’t get Americans to do agricultural labor.
That said, listen to some numbers and words published by the Magic Valley Newspaper. Is one Idahoan in 14 an illegal alien? The Idaho Freedom Foundation, a right-wing public policy advocacy group, says that may be true — and that the cost to Idaho taxpayers runs hundreds of millions of dollars a year. In 2005, Pew Hispanic Research Center estimated there were 25,000-40,000 illegal aliens in the state.