Originally Posted by webwench

Laws against hiring illegals are not enforced because (1) they're difficult to enforce, and (2) there is pressure from employers not to enforce these laws. After all, if we didn't have illegals, our new construction would be far more expensive, as would produce at our grocery stores. It would probably have cost me twice as much to get my house painted a couple of years ago! So employers and consumers for the most part have no reason to complain and push for tighter enforcement, and neither do workers who would want those jobs because, well, most American citizens aren't after construction, landscaping, and agricultural jobs.

People like me get upset over H1-B visas and offshore labor outsourcing, but we'll hire a painting crew made up of non-English-speaking men to paint our houses and maintain our lawn -- one set of immigrants hurts us, and the other helps us.

Without getting into the politics of it, talking heads talk aboutillegal aliens and not illegal employers because it's the immigrants themselves who are most visible and least powerless in our society. There are also more prostitutes in jail on any given night than there are johns or pimps, I'd wager.

We also worry more about the immigrants in the last couple of years because of the national security issues involved -- the 9/11 terrorists were here illegally as well, either without visas or on expired or invalid student visas. So immigrants are an easy target.