The dark reality for immigrants

By Cesar Lumba, Las Vegas

Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2014 | 2 a.m.

Last summer, when Valerie Jarrett, President Barack Obama’s adviser, was in Las Vegas to promote immigration reform, I pointed out to her that Republicans don’t want immigration reform. Undocumented immigrants are expected to register as Democrats once they gain citizenship, so why should Republicans help them?

I have since been convinced there is a far darker reason. Undocumented immigrants are an important economic resource to American business. By keeping them illegal, they can be paid any amount under the table. Such undocumented immigrants tend to keep costs down for huge farms, hotels/motels, restaurants, landscape contractors, laundromats, etc.

They exist in the shadows and would not dare complain if they are abused, taken advantage of or treated inhumanely. They do not exist under the law and therefore cannot sue.

America had a huge economic advantage over Europe when we had slaves. Today, the businesses that employ undocumented immigrants also have a huge advantage because they don’t pay payroll taxes on those employees’ wages, don’t have to offer health care and don’t have to pay minimum wage. Employers don’t have to worry about such employees’ housing, schools for their children or sick leave.

Undocumented immigrants aren’t owned by their employers and are paid wages for their labor, so technically they aren’t slaves.

There are enough good-natured employers who treat their undocumented workers well, just as there were slave masters who treated slaves like they were family. But to a large majority of these undocumented immigrants, it’s a living hell akin to slavery.