Day Laborer Blues: Economic Woes May Solve Immigration Problem

Day laborers are nothing new. They stand around in parking lots at stores like Home Depot waiting for prospective employment on a daily basis. A contractor or some other employer in need of day labor comes by and picks up a few, maybe quite a few. That’s the way it used to be. Today, day laborers are pretty much unemployed.

According to an article in the New York Times today, the day laborer pool is often comprised of illegal immigrants. That’s the way it used to be. The pool has rapidly expanded with people laid off from full-time jobs. It doesn’t matter, though. There’s virtually no day labor for anyone. Two years ago, before the fraud of the subprime mortgage schemes was made known, day laborers worked every day. Now, as the New York Times reported, given a lack of work generally and much more competition for day jobs, a busy day laborer works two days a week.

The day laborer immigrant population used to have money to send home to their families and enough left over to eat at restaurants, drink at bars, buy clothes, etc. No more. Now beginning to understand what’s going on and the likelihood of their lack of work lasting for a long time, many immigrants are returning to their homelands or thinking about it.

It’s strange. Our politicians haven’t been able to agree on immigration reform. Little did they know that America’s tycoons had a solution of their own. Unfortunately, the solution is a byproduct of the national enema they’ve given everyone, legal and illegal alike.