so you feel working in the arizona sun is a minimum wage job? is it air conditioned in your office?
I bucked hay bales, and inspected pea crops for aphids, in eastern Washington summer temps of 90-100 degree weather at higher elevation than AZ farmland. At anything from minimum wage ($5.15 back in the mid 90's in WA, I think) up to about $7 an hour.
And paid taxes on it.
He's overpaid at $9.80.
Especially since he doesn't pay taxes, and the farmer doesn't pay the payroll tax either.
One other thing:
I used to work in the same industry as migrant workers: Agriculture. See above note about bucking hay bales and inspecting pea crops. I worked in a vegetable cannery, I drove a pea combine, I did all sorts of ag jobs during my HS and college summers.
They pick up and move ALL THE TIME. They have a migratory cycle they follow that is as predictable as the crop harvest schedule. They come up through CA and the various farm valleys there, up through OR, and peak in WA or BC, then come back south with the potato crops in ID, down to AZ for lettuce/pecans/walnuts/cotton, and back home when the cycle hits a down spell.
I have no empathy for these people, because the article is inherently sensational. These illegals, if they work in ag, have been involved in this migratory cycle for their entire
work criminal lives. You can't work ag and stay in one place, and make a living.
Maybe we do need to make it easier for peasant Mexicans to come here to do ag work. Tax 'em, only allow the people ACTUALLY DOING THE AG WORK TO COME (no wives or kids, no pregnant women to lay anchor babies, etc), and make sure they GTFO when their SHORT TERM ag work visa expires. Ag work visas should only be good for a month or so under such a plan, with no extensions, and applications for a new one must be made outside of the US. No drivers' licenses, no vehicle registrations. Operate it like a farm work camp.
