They wouldn't come here if the American contractors didn't hire them. They are just trying to escape a ****** life for something a little better.... It's the ******* that hire them that deserve the lions share of the blame.
Bullshit. There is no single point of blame to this problem, but there is a major culprit and it is illegal immigration. Followed by the employers, but that's economics: "Hey, I can hire this guy for $7/hour to do the same job that I used to pay Bill to do for $12/hour?" No brainer. Its' the Unions. It's the economy. On and on.
For you to point this back to the companies is Liberal and foolish. Companies are going to follow dollars.
That's how capitalism works and should work. Our economy and economics were set up and built to support higher wages to American workers. As illegal immigration skyrocketed, and illegals became a large, lower cost, skilled workforce, companies in a capitalist market pursued those cost savings to improve their bottom line and to beat their competitors.
Real life analogy. I work in the high-tech industry (software/hardware). My first job was with a large telecommunications company in their Federal division selling million dollar contracts and the like to the Navy back in 1991-1993. At the time, we worked a standard work-day, usually out by 6 or 6:30, meeting our objectives. I was on the company softball team, two games/week at 7PM. At least a night a week we were at happy hour by 7. It was a fairly standard 9 to 6 gig.
In the late 90s, the dot.com revolution happened. Millionaires were being made in a year or two of work at start-up technology companies. And the college kids entering the market saw this. And said, "Hey, if I can work 12-14 hour days for 5-10 years at a couple start-ups, I can retire by 30 or 35 years old. I'll do it." And they did. All of a sudden the workforce dynamics changed. These young kids starting staying very late. And rising in the corporate ranks quickly. And changing the expectations. Meetings at 6:30PM became expected. Working through lunch expected. Evening technology events, expected. Offices taffed sometimes until 8 or 9PM at night.
Now, in my industry, it is the norm. I get phone calls regularly at 8PM or later. I'm asked to work in all day training sessions on Saturdays and sometimes Sundays at conventions. We'll have 7:30 breakfast meetings, work all day, down to mandatory dinners at night that sometimes end at 10:30. 7:30-10:30PM work days. No one bats an eye.
Those college kids coming into the workforce then, combined with a fast paced, get rich quick era of the dot.coms led to dynamics that changed the expectations of work effort and hours in this industry that is now the standard.
Really, it's not a different story than the impact all of the illegal immigrants have had on our labor force.
I'll make one more case. Say for 20 years you've been paying your local electric company $200/month for your electric service. A proud, American Electric Company. But, all of a sudden, you were given the option to buy your power from Mexican Electric Utilities that had been given the right to sell their electric power to you in Southern California. Dozens of them were flooding your mailbox with offers to switch, guarantees of same up time and quality service, for $125/month. At some point in time, you'd switch. And you'd be a liar to tell me otherwise. The problem there isn't you choosing to funnel your dollars to the Mexican Electric company, just like it's not the American companies' fault for hiring lower cost skilled labor. It's sensible. The problem is those Mexican companies being allowed to undercut the American utilities.
No different than illegal immigration.