>Just come on down to NC and work in a chicken factory. Everyone else does! :o)

A chicken factory (aka "the slaughterhouse" in their own words) was among my customers six jobs ago. Know how it looks... well, most of it. Didn't really go into the disassembly line.

> OK, I am being sarcastic and don't mean it, but really we have a town here that is now comprised of 75% illegal aliens from Mexico. They get free schooling all the way through college and free medical care. The parents are all employed at the local chicken plant. Supposedly, the plant makes under-the-table arrangements with towns in Mexico to bring the workers there. Everyone is complaining about it of course but no one seems to question why they are all in school and working and getting free college and medical care (legal citizens don't get that) and why hasn't the INS shown up to deport them all? They are now even discussing giving Social Security benefits to the workers since they are all paying taxes and even allowing them to keep the benefits and have them mailed to them in Mexico if they relocate there. All without ever getting a green card even or becoming a U.S. citizen. No one seems to wonder about the fact that if they are illegal and paying taxes then it is under a fake social security number or someone elses...makes you wonder what the INS and the IRS get paid for.

To look the other way, in the interest of chicken business?

> I have friends here in Fayetteville from Bulgaria attempting to become U.S. citizens legally and it is taking years for them and in the meantime they work in very low paying jobs so they can at least get sponsored and stay here.

I have three major complaints about the H-1B visa: first, the family members get a H-4 visa, which means "you are forbidden to work". This means my wife has her career interrupted indefinitely, and the (meanwhile) grown up daughters, when they graduate, may be forced into a marriage just to be able to become independent (which is contradictory, isn't it?).

The other one is the "you can work for your sponsor only". It gives the sponsor too much power over the employee, and also when switching jobs you have the obstacle of the cost of switching the sponsor - which makes you a more expensive employee up front.

The third and the worst is that each time a H-1B switches jobs, any green card process is annulled and you're back to square one. Happened twice already.

I figure we are political brethren of the citizens of Washington, DC: taxation without representation.