Severe immigration laws 'weaken the economy"

This article, coupled with your previous article concerning the benifits of trade with Mexico, reveal that you do not see the big picture. All of the problems associated with illegal immigration far exceed the value of cheap labor. I have lived in south Texas my entire life while working in agriculture for over 40 years. We need to fully mechanize harvesting and make other adjustments as necessary but the open border policy is about to take this nation down. Close the border now! I have had it with the drugs, violence, crime and the overwhelming takedown of our schools and healthcare. Use the military if necessary and start deporting the 40 million illegals here now. Ron, you are misguided in your biased reporting.

As a fourth generation Californian who started picking oranges at the age of five on my grandfathers farm(we call it an Orange Ranch), I can tell you factually, illegal aliens have destroyed this country. They vote, they don't have the same cultural values, they only want the money they can make here (at the same time driving wages down for the rest of us) while destroying the environment here. Farming is a family business and if you can't automate or do it yourself maybe another American can grow the additional product and pick with the labor provided by his neighbor's or family or the price will go up until another American will grow the product.
Real wages have been declining since(adjusted for inflation) 1972. The reason is illegal and legal immigration. Geoge Tanimura, one of the largest vegetable growers in the country told me he and his brothers were making a dollar an hour in 1947 to hoe lettuce in the Watsonville California area. That is better than 26 dollars an hour now. You figure it out.

You have to realize who is paying Ron's salary and then you will understand what he writes. When unemployment is at ZERO I will be okay with imported workers. If you are getting one red penny from the govt that didn't come from your contributions to social security or medicare, no more free bennies. We have got to teach these people a work ethic. Either they work or they don't eat. I have reached the point that I don't care if a lot of these people live in a ditch. There are way too many jobs being filled by border crossers. I know of so many good honest hard workers from Mexico that are here working, but they don't give a flying flip about the United States. They have no loyalty to our country. They are here for one thing, money. There are too many criminals that are getting through with the hard workers for this to be acceptable any longer. It's time to defend the border now. No exceptions.