Regarding “The Chicken Hangers,” by Russell Cobb (Identify, February 2004)

After reading ”The Chicken Hangers,“ I find it disquieting that a union organizer would rather pitch in with illegal aliens who have cost his fellow legal state residents the opportunity to access jobs which are now occupied by illegal labor, than with those who are legally entitled to be in this country. It is also alarming that, knowing that the employer is delinquent, Cobb fails to denounce him to immigration authorities. The employment of legal laborers, in lieu of illegal aliens, would cause salaries and living standards to rise because illegal aliens are not looking for the same standard of living as U.S. citizens but for one better than the one they left in a developing nation.

Most unions, however, have fallen to the need of increasing their membership, even if this means betraying the future of American workers. The answer to the widespread use of illegal laborers would be to turn in every employer and landlord who is employing or sheltering any illegal aliens. Under Section 274 of the Immigration and Naturalization Act, it is unlawful to encourage, employ, import, transport, and shelter illegal aliens. These acts are penalized by fines and imprisonment. Why unions don’t force employers to adhere to the law is beyond logic.

With eight to fourteen million illegal aliens occupying jobs that should be held by American citizens, Mexican President Vicente Fox is encouraging farmworkers to come to the United States, and therefore condones the siphoning of over $60 billion per year in remittances out of our economy into those of the illegal workers’ various home countries. The present situation can only be described as an invasion by hostile forces. In addition, thanks to the Voter Registration Act, every state that issues driver’s licenses to illegal aliens is potentially enabling a criminal to vote in our domestic issues and leaders. I hope that we learn to act accordingly and vote to roll back the tide of criminals who are squatting on our jobs and land.

In The Fray Contributor