jose the plumber telling trump what's what.
INTERVIEWER: Hi. Can I ask you something? What do you think about that guy?
LABORER: Donald Trump? That son of a gun who says we’re all thieves? Look, bastard, how we rape…these stakes! [Sledgehammers a 2×4] How we work ourselves to death just to eat. I make $1,100/week and the government takes $350 to feed your lazy, unemployed drug addicts. Look at these guys, busting their butts in the sun. It’s 107 degrees Fahrenheit, it was 115 degrees earlier. Look at these guys, flooring a mile a minute. What rapists and criminals?
INTERVIEWER: Which drugs do you do?
LABORER: This is my drug, you bastard! [Holds up a sledgehammer] This one’s my drug and this one’s [holds up a hammer] my booze, fool!
Much like this laborer, most Mexican immigrants, documented or not, come to the United States to work. Foreign-born workers account for around 17 percent of the civilian labor force and are disproportionately represented in labor-intensive jobs like construction and the service industry. Even among the 11 million or so undocumented immigrants in the United States, over 8 millionare working or seeking work, a far higher labor participation rate (72.3 percent) than in thecountry as a whole (62.6 percent).
In addition to their hard work, undocumented immigrants pay over $10 billion in taxes each year, contributing to a range of social services that are reserved only for citizens. Rather than immigrants being leechers, it’s American citizens who are on the receiving end of billions in free money.
Though Trump painted a picture of Mexican immigrants as criminals, studies actually show that native-born Americans are significantly more likely to commit a crime than recent immigrants. In reality, most Mexican immigrants are more like this laborer, working hard in adverse conditions and contributing to American society despite being treated worse than citizens.