Growing up we always had migrant workers show up here. A few in the spring to prepare the fields and plant potatos/corm /pumpkins/ ete and tend the fields. In the late summer and fall there would be a big influx for the harvest. Then they'd move on, back to GA, FL, MS etc. for their winter jobs. A tiny minority were "south of the border" folk, working mostly in hotel/motel/restaurants. There were a number who were Portugese, who worked the fishing fleet in the summer. There were always a number of illegals among them.
About 20 years ago the profile had changed completely. The migrants, mostly Americans and mostly black, had been automated out of a job, as well as the shrinking land dedicated to agriculture. The migrantr workers stopped migrating, many setteling here perminately , and joining the community. Still mostly laborers, but now tradesman/women and as good to have as neighbors as anyone else.
Now, however, we had lots and lots of south of the border illegal migrants working the menial resort jobs, basic lawn care, and basic construction, as that's all there was available. These were/are illegals because the State Dept. refuses to issue seasonal green cards appropriately. Many working for the former American migrrant farm workers. The economy has successfully switched to "resort" from "mixed" . Remember too that every single local HS or College students who wanted a seasonal job could get one. I normally had two, one 7:30 to 4:30 plus a "tips only" thing nights. Normally, parking cars, running a marine "free" taxi, getting the Sunday NYTimes to the Marina's Yachtsmen, and so on. BTW, these still exist today and garner good money.
But there is a shortage of kids , so first choice is the Irish students, who loved working here summers. No permits anymore. Plus, there are simply far too few woodbutcher etc candidates graduating from the local schools. They are LEAVING for areas where they can made a living and afford to buy a home.
Legal workes unavailable, the choice is go illegal or go out of business.
So, what's the solution? A number of things need to be done together. Increase the seasonal greencard availability appropriately by LOCAL, not just a projected national number, arrest and deport the FELONS among the illegal AND legal aliens, break the back of organized crime gangs based on ethnic /racial identity, invenory those illegals remaing here and have a real national debate on how to deal with these remaining, close the southern border to illegal infultration, look more closely at the northen border, summers mostly, force an end to "sancuary" cities, and other attainable goals.
Some will self deport, some we might agree can stay, some we might ship home , but we must recognise that this will take YEARS to complete, as we are discussing 12 million (gvt numbers, I suspect 20 million) who need to have a resolution one way or the other. A very large number of whom cannot simply rounded up and shipped out without crippling many communities economies.
I see no easy answers here, but a long drawn out
