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Press McNerney & Harmer to provide solution to illegals bumping jobless American workers
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Aqua Spa & Pool went belly-up this past week.

That is not a good thing as it cost people jobs.

Having said that it is interesting to note what the collapse of the business revealed. A good number of their workers were illegal immigrants.

On one level it is wrong that not only are they getting stiffed out of their pay check but they can’t apply for unemployment unless they want to be deported. But it does kind of fly in the face of the argument that illegal immigrants basically hold jobs that nobody else wants.

Given the number of construction people out of work one would think a pool company would have no problem finding legal workers. Giving them the benefit of the doubt, they may have been fooled by fake identification since all employers are supposed to ask for Social Security cards and a driver’s license to verify they are citizens.

Of course, that assumes the State of California Department of Motor Vehicles hasn’t issued them a driver’s license as they have been known to do when it comes to illegals.

So you think the last vanguard of defense would be Social Security cards. They’re pretty hard to fake, right?

Apparently that’s not the case. The illegals employed at Aqua Pools said they obtained fake Social Security cards.

So much for illegals only working in restaurants, farm jobs and other such “low wage”” jobs that nobody else wants.

At least that is the battle cry of those defending illegal immigration.

Stories like Aqua Pool are pretty hard to defend, though, especially in light of California’s 12.3 percent unemployment rate, Manteca’s 15.2 percent jobless rate, and San Joaquin County’s 17.4 percent unemployment level.

There are serious questions whether employers are being diligent.

That aside this needs to be a major issue this November. Congressman Jerry McNerney - and his Republican challenger David Harmer - need to be pinned down to details on exactly how they will go about correcting this huge travesty.

Military spending, environmental questions, and the federal deficit don’t mean all that much if Washington continues to allow the cancerous undermining of the economy with illegals displacing citizens when it comes to jobs. In short, there will come a point when the republic will collapse either through cheaper foreign workers - legal and otherwise working for less money - and more American citizens being thrown out of work. Then there is the question of those who are still employed being burdened more and more with taxes especially at the federal level.

It may be lost on McNernery and Harmer, but the real issues need to be why the federal government continues to grow and has a record number of people making $100,000 plus a year while they fail to enforce basic laws regarding immigration making the rest of us suffer twice through lost jobs and increased tax burdens.

Rhetoric won’t cut it. There needs to be an ironclad solution put in place with specific details. And, by the way, Harmer doesn’t get a free pass on this one running as “an outsider”. Too often those not in office give voters lip service but when they get into office have no real plan - as Jerry Brown so eloquently points out in one of those annoying Meg Whitman commercials. Besides, if the Republicans are tougher on illegal immigration than the Democrats why didn’t they solve the problem when they controlled the House and Senate as well as the presidency?

It is for the same reason most Democrats aren’t tough in terms of action - they rely on campaign contributions from big money interests that depend on cheap illegal labor to increase their bottom line.

That may - or may not - be what Aqua Pools did. They may honestly have been duped with the fake cards.

As for defenders of illegal immigration who will argue America benefits from Social Society take being paid into non-existent accounts as it helps keep that program afloat, they conveniently forget what it does to the overall federal budget. Unemployed Americans who can’t work aren’t paying toward their retirement which means they could become a big burden on taxpayers as they age.

What is wrong is wrong.

Yes, we need a serious conversation and an action plan regarding illegal immigration.
Until that happens. which won’t be any time soon given the high level of dysfunction In politics, steps need to be taken to aggressively enforce the laws already on the books.

If not the next time you see McNerney or Harmer ask them exactly how they are going to stop illegals such as those at Aqua Pools displacing Americans from decent paying jobs.