My issue is really with the fact that they work 'under the table' illegally and hence are not protected in anyway. Their employers could literally treat them as was done before our laws were implemented which protect workers from inhuman conditions and guarantee basic safety and working conditions. Granted it is their choice to do so, but it still is not right. It is not all of course, and it may in fact be a minority in comparison to the numbers. It is not only Mexican immigrants but even more so asian immigrants illegally transported into this country and used as slave labor. They are here and hidden. The immigrants who cross the border from Mexico though 'typically' are here by choice, acquire employment by choice, and accept whatever working conditions they get. Most are good workers, law abiding residents, who only want to better the lives of their families. It is really the small employers here in the U.S. who are taking advantage of the situation.



>>My brother-in-law has a couple of businesses in which all who work for him are subcontractors. Painting and constructions. His direct competition is other companies hiring illegals undercutting the bids for jobs. I know a few illegals now - most people do. Of those I know, most have sent over 25,000.00 home to their families in Mexico. They all live here in the U.S. in a single home - 14 of them. They all make enough to pay taxes but none do. They live in a 'bare-bones' existence (I consider it almost squallor) and send their $ home to Mexico.
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>Had such a team in the neighborhood, but these guys were even living in luxury, only five of them in a two bedroom/two bathroom apartment with A/C. A van would come at about 7AM to pick them up, and they'd return at 7PM. Saturdays too, but not Sundays. Don't know whether they were legal - met them in person only when I was shovelling snow, and they borrowed the shovel. Couldn't even understand that it wasn't my shovel, that I got it from the leasing office, so they insisted on returning it to me, and I had to walk to the office again to return it :).
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>And this "I'll live poor and send all my money home" is the usual attitude of the Gastarbeiter. It's a common phenomenon - these guys go where they can find work to feed their families.