16-Year-Old Dies of Rabies in Santa Maria

More overhead costs of illegal immigration: socialized expenses of communicable diseases for private benefits to the agricultural industry.

Oh come now....I see women in Escalades, Tahoe's and other nice cars parking at the WIC dispensaries getting their free chow...I see schools freely dishing out breakfasts AND lunches to poor kids carrying iPods....Don't be such a hata...you owe it to them remember? If you don't, I'll get loud.....and might call you a racist...

So street fighter, i just got back from Mexico too. Does that make me an Illegal? I just dont see that in this story. I bet you are not even from Santa Barbara. So why dont YOU go home?

What all of this shows is that while people argue pro/against the open border, the conditions in Mexico never seem to get better.

Here's a litmus test question to ask ANYONE to get their brains thinking about the immigration issue:

You are fervently ANTI / PRO immigration (pick one). The phone rings. Its an attorney with news that your uncle has died and left you a 300 acre strawberry farm. You can expect to make $5 million a year from the berries. Oops -- you are now the proud employer of 350 undocumented workers.

Do you:

A) Fire them all and hire American workers, if you can find any, and likely reduce your annual income to one quarter of what it could be.

B) Decide that illegal workers are not such a bad thing after all and start planning how to enjoy your windfall.

C) Sell the property immediately and let someone else be the employer of all these undocumented workers.

Right answer? Trick question, there ISN'T a correct answer until voters, politicans and government begins to look at this complex issue in a realistic and intelligent manner.

"Fire them all and hire American workers, if you can find any, and likely reduce your annual income to one quarter of what it could be"

Emptynewsroom: While I think your post is otherwise a great one and thought-provoking, I call into question what you say above.

While you are right about the income reduction, I disagree that you could not find any American workers. The issue is not that Americans won't do the work, but rather that they won't work for the cheap wages that illegal immigrants will work for because they are a captive audience.

Otherwise, I think you raise very good points. Also, while I know you want to remain anonymous, I'm curious, did you work at the Anacapa Asylum between 1994-2004? (When I worked there)

Bill, if you're talking about a certain e-mail server software firm, then yes I did (from 1995 - 96).

Regarding your comment above: You are correct that there are PLENTY of documented workers and people will always be looking for employment. However, just as our nation is "addicted to oil", we are also addicted to .99 cent lettuce, $49.00 hotel rooms and all the cheap junk that Wal Mart and other retailers sell.

You do have a point, though: hiring legal workers only DOES drive up wages. A friend working at a high-end restaurant in the Bay area told me that after several "sweeps" by the feds to ferret out illegal workers among the cooks and waitstaff at local restaurants, job applicants with citizenship or work permits immediately began to hold out for better pay. When he'd offer $8.00 an hour, they'd hold up their SSN card and say, "No, I want more, I'm legal." Of course, consumers will pay higher prices for the peace of mind that the people who just cooked and served their meal and who wash the dishes are documented.