AuntyM,
Your example of the brush pickers goes much farther than you implicated. A few years back, it was all legal south Asian Immigrants doing it. Most of these people spoke little english and were not educated enough to find better jobs. I am sure that many of them moved on, but I am also sure that there would be others to take their place. The illegals will push the price down and make it harder for the lowest wage earners in our society to work. Eventually many of these brush pickers will move on to jobs like drywall, roofing, framing, auto repair, and such and a new group of illegals will take their place. Unless we stop it, the will be no jobs left for uneducated but hard working americans that pay a low but livable wage. With out transitional type jobs to prove they are willing to work, many Americans will find it hard to move into the work force. People like divorced mothers coming back into the work force, recovering alcoholics, ex-cons, new legal immigrants, high school drop outs getting their act together, and people with lower IQ's, will not be able to find work . In the end, we may make it easier for them to give up.