Comments on: Storm Lake, Iowa: A Meatpacking Town Fueled by Immigrant Labor

By: FalconsImage

FalconsImage — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 17:45:00 +0000

I am a former Storm Lake resident and spent my first 23 years there. I now live in California. In California the problem with “jobs that Americans won’t do” is even worse than it apparently is in Storm Lake. The similarity is that in both states the wages offered for these jobs are intentionally so low that Americans who prefer not to live three families in one two-bedroom house, are not interested. The difference is that in California, the legislators have passed laws that provide social benefits to illegals (cleverly, designated “undocumenteds”) so that the fringe benefits costs are born by the taxpayers and not the employing companies. I visited Storm Lake a couple of years back for the first time in twenty years, I cried at the destruction and desecration of what was once truly “The City Beautiful.” The East side of town is like a ghetto compared to when I lived there. The “Ethnic stores” that referred to in the article are catering to both legal and illegal immigrants who are not becoming American but are living in ethnic “ghettos.” The illegals (I’m referring to the Latinos as the Asians and Africans are here legally) may “integrate” commercially in restaurants, schools, and stores but they do not integrate socially and they represent the lower class and poor of Storm Lake. When I lived in Storm Lake, the population was predominantly of Scandinavian, German, or English descent but there were no German restaurants, Swedish restaurants, or English stores. There was no apparent ethnicity to the city. It was American! The death of Storm Lake is tragic and sad! It was also preventable!

By: 박종인

박종인 — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 13:54:00 +0000

wow!~ I have already come!! surprise~!!http://youtu.be/zXKV78VERio

By: 박종인

박종인 — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 13:54:00 +0000

wow!~ I have already come!! surprise~!!http://youtu.be/zXKV78VERio

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 07:06:00 +0000

The illegal alien supporters are always screaming that these poor people don’t have anywhere to go if they are deported as if they don’t have a country and I say why don’t they simply drive home or catch a bus it’s just over the border it’s not on another planet.

By: Stand With Arizona

Stand With Arizona — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 03:03:00 +0000

Less than 3% of Illegal aliens work in agriculture, according to the Pew Hispanic Center. And there are existing visa programs for farmers who need foreign workers – LEGALLY. So spare us the myth about fruit-pickers. The vast majority of jobs illegals steal from Americans are good-paying jobs in construction, masonry, plumbing, steelworking, landscaping, and service industries. Last week, 600 illegals were fired from a Colorado steel plant: average wage was $18/hr. You going to tell us American “won’t” do those jobs? When the giant Swift meatpacking plant was raided in 2007, Americans lined for 1/2 a mile to grab those jobs, as they would in Iowa, if they had an Arizona-style immigration law and restrictions on welfare and healthcare access to illegals. YOU are perpetuating all the myths here, not Steve King.

By: Lene Danielsen

Lene Danielsen — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 00:36:00 +0000

Steve King the Draft dodging Chickenhawk that loves our foreign policy but not if it is him getting shot at. Here is a good article about his draft dodging days..http://www.bleedingheartland.com/diary/4303/king-and-the-draft

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 00:01:00 +0000

he is not on an anti-immigrant bandwagon.
he, like most americans, are on the ANTI ILLEGAL ALIEN bandwagon.
its completely different, immigrants are always welcome in the US as long as they follow the laws and go through all the checks that the government makes you go through,. people who simply walk over a border ARE NOT following these laws and regulations.
if these farmers would not pay slave wages to people and pay an actual salary for an american to pay their bills, you might get more americans for these jobs.

By: SEAL THE BORDER

SEAL THE BORDER — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 23:22:00 +0000

We do NOT need immigration reform, all we NEED is to have the current laws enforced!

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 22:06:00 +0000

Mark Prosser, the Storm Lake police chief, is a courageous, knowledgeable professional who talks straight. Conversely, Steve King, the US Representative, perpetrates a myth. Someone should challenge King to document his assertion that there’s no jobs “Americans” won’t do. Farmers all over the country, desperate for seasonal workers, would love to know where to find these nonexistent “Americans”. If King truly cared about the future of the country, he would jump off the anti-immigrant bandwagon, stop trying to victimize the most vulnerable among us, and study the problem closely by learning from those, such as Mark Prosser, who are more fact-oriented than him. King’s reasons may lie more in the direction of fearing the wrath of anti-immigrant lobbying groups and their minions.