4 ms·

Just moved from Iowa to the Bay a couple months ago. You're right, they know. From the federal level on down to the local, everyone knows that immigrant labor k

Just moved from Iowa to the Bay a couple months ago. You're right, they know. From the federal level on down to the local, everyone knows that immigrant labor keeps rural communities going in Iowa. It's the worst kept political secret in the state, and I'd guess other states too. When an immigration raid occured in Postville, Iowa in May of 2008, it devastated the local economy. The chief executive of the plant was actually charged and convicted on other crimes (commuted by President Trump last year). The city council called it an economic and humanitarian crisis. Residents of the two counties Postville resides in voted almost 2 to 1 for President Trump.

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Cyclone_ 8y ago
Can you provide a link to some evidence of how it "devastated the local economy"?
- glibgil 8y ago
  https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18802933 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18802933
  - stevehawk 8y ago
    lol well played
  - Cyclone_ 8y ago
    Seriously? Perhaps a 3rd party one other than a stranger on the internet? Not sure what to say if you can't stand having your views challenged in life...
sjg007 8y ago
Interesting... makes you wonder why people don't raise the pardon as a counter example to Trump's wall.
- hackerman12345 8y ago
  I've heard the "we depend on illegal migrant workers to keep food affordable because they are the only people who will work for $3/h" line a few times and it usually comes from the 'anti-wall' folks.
  - tossaccount123 8y ago
    I've always thought that was a terrible argument. The same logic could be used to justify slavery since our food price would drop even lower. Work conditions aren't much different for illegal laborers compared to slaves anyway. If they complain they get deported
    - api 8y ago
      The same logic was used to justify slavery.
  - sjg007 8y ago
    Farmers and other ag/food processors can mass import immigrants on special visas for farm labor. It's usually seasonal but I would imagine with a wall it would have to change, especially if workers have US dependents. Most illegal immigrants also simply over stay their legal visas.
    - masonic 8y ago
      Most illegal immigrants also simply over stay their legal visas Not "most", but many. And most of those planned to overstay from the start.
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tossaccount123 8y ago
>everyone knows that immigrant labor keeps rural communities going in Iowa What? I know people who made $30 an hour with full benefits in the 70s doing those jobs. It amazes me people can claim to support the poor/middle class and illegal immigration at the same time Illegal immigration killed those communities by driving down wages and forcing people to go to college and move to a city to find a job that provides a living wage. The result is the death spiral of many rural communities as young kids are forced to leave I won't blame illegals completely, big business and corporate farms are the ones that pushed for it in the name of better profit margins for investors
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- Spooky23 8y ago
  Yes and no. They made $30/hr in Des Moines or Chicago or other cities. There were profitable union slaughterhosues in New York into the 80s. Slaughterhouses were moved out to the country to break the unions, period. “Saving money” by being closer to farms is a contrived argument. A good place to start is the book “Fast Food Nation”. Illegals are a symptom. The problems are industrial facilities with heavy manpower requirements, high turnover, designed to operate in a way that guarantees chronic medical problems with workers, placed in places with no people. The big waves of Mexicans chose to move to places like rural Iowa in the 90s not out of a desire to break their bodies hacking at meat at high speed, but because trade policy flooded cheap corn into the market and exploded the Mexican agricultural economy. Rural communities have been conned hook line and sinker. Their death began when the alliance between western resource barons and southern democrats (ie segregationists) began with Nixon. Trade policy, financial sector consolidation, offshoring of industrial economy dug the grave. I grew up in a beautiful northeast rural community. It’s a shell of what it was when I was a child. All of the dairy operations are gone, and most of the full time farms will cease operations when the owners retire. The economy runs on social security, public assistance, government workers commuting up to 90 miles away, and a couple of small industrial operations. Nobody with any ability will stick around, and that has nothing to do with people trying to escape life in Central America.

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[deleted]

Cyclone_ 8y ago

Can you provide a link to some evidence of how it "devastated the local economy"?

glibgil 8y ago
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18802933 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18802933
- stevehawk 8y ago
  lol well played
- Cyclone_ 8y ago
  Seriously? Perhaps a 3rd party one other than a stranger on the internet? Not sure what to say if you can't stand having your views challenged in life...

sjg007 8y ago

Interesting... makes you wonder why people don't raise the pardon as a counter example to Trump's wall.

hackerman12345 8y ago
I've heard the "we depend on illegal migrant workers to keep food affordable because they are the only people who will work for $3/h" line a few times and it usually comes from the 'anti-wall' folks.
- tossaccount123 8y ago
  I've always thought that was a terrible argument. The same logic could be used to justify slavery since our food price would drop even lower. Work conditions aren't much different for illegal laborers compared to slaves anyway. If they complain they get deported
  - api 8y ago
    The same logic was used to justify slavery.
- sjg007 8y ago
  Farmers and other ag/food processors can mass import immigrants on special visas for farm labor. It's usually seasonal but I would imagine with a wall it would have to change, especially if workers have US dependents. Most illegal immigrants also simply over stay their legal visas.
  - masonic 8y ago
    Most illegal immigrants also simply over stay their legal visas Not "most", but many. And most of those planned to overstay from the start.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

tossaccount123 8y ago

>everyone knows that immigrant labor keeps rural communities going in Iowa What? I know people who made $30 an hour with full benefits in the 70s doing those jobs. It amazes me people can claim to support the poor/middle class and illegal immigration at the same time Illegal immigration killed those communities by driving down wages and forcing people to go to college and move to a city to find a job that provides a living wage. The result is the death spiral of many rural communities as young kids are forced to leave I won't blame illegals completely, big business and corporate farms are the ones that pushed for it in the name of better profit margins for investors

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
Spooky23 8y ago
Yes and no. They made $30/hr in Des Moines or Chicago or other cities. There were profitable union slaughterhosues in New York into the 80s. Slaughterhouses were moved out to the country to break the unions, period. “Saving money” by being closer to farms is a contrived argument. A good place to start is the book “Fast Food Nation”. Illegals are a symptom. The problems are industrial facilities with heavy manpower requirements, high turnover, designed to operate in a way that guarantees chronic medical problems with workers, placed in places with no people. The big waves of Mexicans chose to move to places like rural Iowa in the 90s not out of a desire to break their bodies hacking at meat at high speed, but because trade policy flooded cheap corn into the market and exploded the Mexican agricultural economy. Rural communities have been conned hook line and sinker. Their death began when the alliance between western resource barons and southern democrats (ie segregationists) began with Nixon. Trade policy, financial sector consolidation, offshoring of industrial economy dug the grave. I grew up in a beautiful northeast rural community. It’s a shell of what it was when I was a child. All of the dairy operations are gone, and most of the full time farms will cease operations when the owners retire. The economy runs on social security, public assistance, government workers commuting up to 90 miles away, and a couple of small industrial operations. Nobody with any ability will stick around, and that has nothing to do with people trying to escape life in Central America.