The impacts of illegal immigrants upon US citizens, particularly in the African American community and to a lesser extent the Latin American community, have largely been overlooked in the discussion of the issue.

Under the guise of these people do work that American citizens will not do, we have allowed an undercutting of the wages previously paid to US citizens for work that needs to be done. These areas included farm work, food processing, landscaping and construction.

In California, the field workers organized under the leadership of Cesar Chavez formed the United Farm Workers to protect the people then working on California farms. The UFW understands the impact of illegal aliens upon the American worker as well as any organization. From their inception through today, they oppose using illegal immigrants knowing that the impact would hurt their members who are either American citizens or legal workers.

We do not see food-processing going on, but your chicken, beef, etc. are winding up in the supermarket. The same problems exist in the food processing plants as they do in the farms. Illegal immigrants who will work faster, longer and for less money under the threat of being turned over to ICE, have replaced US citizens.

We all see what is happening in landscaping. Thirty years ago, I had to have my Florida lawn replaced. My son, who had worked in the home construction industry was looking at an old family movie and burst out laughing, exclaiming, “You had white men doing lawn work.” The answer is yes I did, and those men went home to their family supporting them on the wages they were paid by the contractor who did the job.

There are two ‘villains’ in what has happened. The apparent one is the company that hire these workers. Unfortunately, because of competitive pressures, they have little choice. The real source of the problem is Uncle Sam. By allowing an unrestricted flow of illegals into the country and then into jobs we have created a situation in which American citizens with few skills and little education cannot find a job. This flow will continue and work its way up the ladder, so long as we do not restrict it.

Stopping the flow through real border security is the first step. If we have to go to the extreme of the Korean DMZ, then we should. The second is to enforce strict criminal penalties against those who hire illegals and those who provide them with paperwork. Violation MUST draw prison terms to be effective. I suggest that Joe Arpio be hired to oversee the construction of these camps, preferably in the Aleutian Islands.