"These are jobs Americans would do."
That what they always say. As an American I have worked as a security guard for almost two years now, guarding the plants of companies like Tyson, P&G, Swanson, and others.
Having seen the working Conditions first hand I can say that they're wrong. Dead wrong.
I wouldn't work in the conditions I've seen, and certainly those who claim they would wouldn't either. They aren't Chinese Sweatshops, but they're close.
I one factory I visited the floors were made of rubber and constantly wet. Working there would be like working on Ice. They work without air conditioning around machinery loud enough to burst your ear drums in 100 degree weather. They process chicken carcasses that have sat in a refrigerated truck overnight, shipped from hundreds of miles away.
They make minimum wage with little benefits. Health Insurance, even if they qualify, caps out at 25,000 dollars of coverage a year. Some don't even receive minimum wage, instead paying overseers who take a fee to remain quiet about their immigration status. I'm sure some of those same overseers then go home and complain about illegals taking their jobs.
Americans are hard workers. But the work environment present in these plants is hardly American. It's more like something out of Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle" than anything out of the American Dream.
Those who do work here who are legal aren't even what some would call "Real Americans." They are legalized Hispanics, and African Americans, Pacific Islanders, and only a very few Whites.
I would challenge anyone who say's that illegal immigrants are stealing jobs to do a single day of work at one of these factories, they are hiring.
