The problems here are simple & obvious: #1 you can’t have your cake and eat it too. The Republican majority party wants to go against the E-Verify for reasons they really cannot identify because they don’t want to be specific on making a law that would mean the three biggest employers in the State of Florida: agriculture, tourism & construction, would have to “lose” money by having to check the immigration status of the workers they hire. Now, “everyone” knows these “undocumented” immigrants provide the majority of workers for those aforementioned three biggest employers: agriculture, tourism and construction. In agriculture farmers grow but very seldom do much, if any, of the picking, sorting, labor-intensive work needed to take their products to market and depend on illegal and/or undocumented workers to do this work for them and for slave-labor wages. As for the tourist industry: if the kitchen staff, wait staff, cleaning staff and other unskilled labor in the State of Florida were to suddenly disappear the workers subsequently hired would substantially lower the wages of all the managers and assistant managers because the wages of the people who really do the heavy lifting would go up, even as in the construction industry, those identified by their jobs as laborers, carpenters, roofers, electricians, plumbers and helpers would not be immigrants but trained workers, in union-represented jobs and these workers would be paid much more than undocumented workers, most of whom are paid cash by the greedy contractors whose accountants always keep “two sets of books.” Many of these workers are also not trained properly enough and seriously endanger the lives of their fellow workers by “learning” many skills on the job instead of in an apprenticeship program.
The simple and easy answer here is to document these workers with “open arms,” much as those in the late 19th century were welcomed, as they fled their home country’s wars, violence and impoverished conditions. It would be but a simple task but if only we had a human being POTUS who actually led this country with even a modicum of a heart but, alas, such is not to be, in this White House, at this time.
And so we have a time that will worsen, as Trump will start cracking down, as he already has showed signs of doing, by taking away any and all government programs that help any poor people, including their children and rewarding the super-wealthy by having them pay little, or even, no taxes, exactly as he does, providing an example that if every single citizen duplicated we would have no government, as Capitalism depends solely upon money and Donald Trump means to have it all, or as much as he can personally get, and any way he can get it appears to make no difference to him.
We live in a time when the POTUS is spending enormous amounts of the people’s money, of course it is the government’s money, but, as Trump pays no taxes, he cares not as he does the devil’s work and builds his wall. Everyone with a brain realizes the drug cartels go underneath these walls and have been doing so ever since they began building them and the cartels built tunnels to countermand them many decades ago.
But, unfortunately, like I said, Trump thinks only of himself and what he, personally, will gain. Okay, this is how he thinks: he realizes that he needs to look good, so, he will ban Sanctuary cities because, after all, who occupies “Sanctuary Cities?” Not any registered voters, that’s for sure. And so, very soon, Trump will begin closing them down, hurting, of course, the little children the most but making the devil, Trump, look fine, which is all he’s interested in. The problem with this is, of course, we have ¼ million immigrants that pay no taxes and are paid in cash by people who wish to, like Trump, avoid paying taxes. The “illegal” immigrants, including their “innocent” children, actually pay more taxes then Trump himself, every time they buy food, eat in a restaurant, buy clothes, etc. And, being poor, working people, but working for cash, they cannot get any tax refunds.
Now, of course, the businesses that depend on these workers to stay in business, like many of the businesses owned by so many legislators, who realize that 253,500 jobs, $10.7 billion in earnings and $1.25 billion in state & local revenue could be lost. We know what Trump will do, close down sanctuary cities but what about the State Legislature? Especially those with skin in the game?
Keith's Corner 