http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-farmworkers-ice-20180316-htmlstory.htmlI'm trying hard to dredge up sympathy for illegal aliens who are finally getting caught after being here for years, but I just can't do it. They
know they're illegal, and those who have been here "for decades" have had decades to do something about making themselves legal -- but they haven't done it. As for the farmers who rely on illegal labor -- there is a guest worker program that allows foreign workers to enter
on a temporary basis for seasonal farm work. It's not my fault if California farmers have continued to hire illegals rather than follow the law.
It's not just California. The guy who used to do my yard work disappeared a year ago. He was around during the winter of 2016-2017, and he plowed my driveway several times. When spring of 2017 rolled around, though, he was nowhere to be found. I drove by the address on his card (he had a business card), and there was no sign of either of his two pickup trucks. He wasn't around this winter for plowing, either.
I know he was from Mexico. He didn't speak English, and my Spanish is pretty limited. We hired him when my wife (who spoke Spanish as her native language) found him somewhere. I could speak just enough to say hello and to pay him, but not to have any real conversations. My best guess is that he self-deported when Trump was elected.
On an individual level, I feel a degree of sympathy. He was a nice guy and a hard worker. The issue isn't that all illegal aliens are rapists and/or terrorists. The issue is simply that they are illegal. Individual sympathies aside, on a systemic level it's not tenable to have millions of illegal workers taking work away from people who are here legally, and sending huge chunks of money out of our national economy and sending it back to family in the native country.
And no, I didn't -- and don't -- know that he was illegal. My wife knew that I am adamantly against illegals, so when she hired him and I saw that he had a business card I assumed that he was legal. That now appears to have been naive on my part.