Asheville immigration raid highlights our addiction to cheap labor

So, here we go again.

Another immigration raid. This time the feds nabbed a dozen workers — eight Hispanics and four Asians — during a raid of the Shogun Buffet Hibachi Grill & Sushi restaurant near Biltmore Square Mall.

So, a dozen families will be fighting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to stay together, to stay in their homes, to stay in this country.

And local residents will wonder if they can keep getting the unlimited buffet on the cheap.

The raid on Tuesday reminded me of the 2008 sweep that nabbed 57 workers from a parachute maker Mills Manufacturing in Woodfin. It also brought back memories of my interview with a Henderson County apple grower last summer who said he just cannot get enough workers to pick the harvest because the county has become fairly militant about keeping “illegals” out.

Those “illegals” are also known as some of the few remaining people in America who will pick apples for weeks on end.

I say “here we go again” because this much is clear: Wherever you stand on the immigration issues, it’s obvious America does not really want to deal with the problem.

We’re not only addicted to foreign oil in this country, we’re also addicted to foreign workers.

You go into Shogun, strap on the feed bag and waddle out after a wonderful meal that costs a whopping $7.36 for the lunch buffet, $10.55 for dinner. Would you pay $15 or $20 bucks for that?

Didn’t think so.

How about those apples? Say you walked into the grocery store and see Galas are going for $6 a pound instead of $1.67.

I’m thinking you’d pass.

And it goes on and on and on. Yes, sometimes employers are to blame, seeking out the cheapest labor they can find to maximize profits.

But sometimes they’re just trying to stay alive, to satisfy consumers who demand cheap prices on a wide range of products but are not willing to actually go out and do the physical labor required to make or harvest those products.

Employers I’ve talked to over the years have told me they check all the legal documents of potential employees that they can by law. But some are excellent forgeries.
That means they do often pay taxes on these folks who turn out to be illegal, and the government doesn’t return the money when they alert them to their workers’ illegal status.

Employers will tell you — almost always off the record — that they simply want workers who will show up, work hard and not call in sick all the time or miss work because of frequent court dates. I’ve had some tell me that Anglo job applicants have literally shown up drunk to fill out job applications.

Yes, many Americans still have that hard-core work ethic, but not as many as we used to produce.

That leaves an immense shortfall, one that Latinos, by and large, fill.

We’ve got some 11 million “illegal aliens” in the United States right now, and it costs $2,000 or so to arrest, process and send one of them back home.

So, do you, as a taxpayer want to shell out $22 billion, on the cheap end of the estimate, to remove them all?

Didn’t think so.

Do you want to pick apples or process chickens when those workers are gone?

Didn’t think so.

So, what about that Mexican border? Do you, as a taxpayer, want to shell out hundreds of billions to make a truly secure border with Mexico?

OK, maybe you do. I know I would like to see it, to use a cheese analogy, be more like cheddar than Swiss.

But so far, our politicians — and by proxy, us — have not shown the will to really make it secure.

So here we are, addicted to cheap products, food and services, often provided on the backs of “illegals” doing jobs we won’t do anymore.

The government won’t greatly expand the guest worker program, either, partly because elected officials tend to catch heat for suggesting we need to allow more Hispanics to come here “and take our jobs.” Yes, even though they’re jobs we by and large won’t do anymore.

So, what’s the solution? I lean toward meaningful border security, significantly bumping up the guest worker program and — let the fan mail begin! — another major amnesty program.

Republican President Ronald Reagan was the last president to make this happen, back in 1986 when he granted amnesty to nearly 3 million illegals. The problem has done nothing but grow since then.

Just like our addiction to foreign oil and cheap labor.

Posted in: illegal aliens, illegal status, immense shortfall