Dear Congressman Cramer;
I received your nicely printed, full color glossy mailer today and was not only bothered by the expense this mailing must have incurred, but also the lack of recognition to the major cause of illegal immigration: Companies hire illegal Immigrants.
If companies would not hire them there would be no reason for them to cross our borders. Many say that they come with forged papers that the company cannot distinguish from real. Well, give a company access to the same means that Government agencies use to determine legality of an Immigrant and problem solved. I promise, no one from the third world would want to come here just to starve in a different geographic location.
Lead a movement to seriously fine these companies that draw these people to our lands by paying them more than they would make at home rather than pay an honest American wage and enforce these laws. I realize that these companies have far more lobbyists than the Immigrant does and they probably donate far more to your reelection campaigns than the typical Immigrant.
One of the companies I work for ( ******** ) today received a request for quote from a Mexican company (Resiper
http://resiper.net/ ) that manufactures many of the same items that we do. This RFQ represents a substantial chunk of change to us and also brings to light that the economy down there is growing. We manufacture items used on the plastic processing machines that produce anything from a milk bottle to a car dash. In the recent past, N&M Ingineria located in Costa Rica has been one of our best customers. In 2005&6 We received over $12K in orders from Islamabad. I guess what I’m saying is we sell low tech items that maintain high tech machines that are used in manufacturing facilities that employ tens of thousands in the countries to our South. We have also seen the closings of many of the same types of plants here in the Southeast. NAFTA opened the playing field for many American companies to relocate to areas with lower cost of living, a populace willing to work for a 10th of what an American worker requires to maintain a family all to the benefit of their share holders. One of ******’s competitors recently opened a plant in Northern Mexico and are paying their manufacturing people $100 a week plus lunches. The starting salary for our people is $15.00 an hour.
Great? No.
The typical American today is not a shareholder in the position that would make any real difference in his income.
There is no simplistic answer to this problem as it is many faceted. We cannot solve it with the “be afraid du jour” or Lou Dobbs type sound bites.
Please bring the CAUSE of the problem to light rather than the symptom.
With Respect,
******