Guatemalan Migration

This Frontline video shows the tale of two cities in Guatemala whose people are desperately poor and in need of things like medical care and money to pay back their debt.  In search of better opportunities the villagers went to the U.S to work in a Kosher meat packing plant in Iowa.  When immigration officials raided the plant many workers were deported and the small Iowa town whose economy relied on the plant was devastated.  The immigrants ended up going back to their small towns with shame on their faces.  They didn't know what would become of their families or their debt.  There is no economy in the small villages where they are from and they are sometimes just lucky enough to have food to feed their families.  The ones that didn't get caught in the raid ended up going back to Guatemala anyways because the raid left the dependent U.S. town without a way to make money.  Even the legal U.S. residents went looking for donations and other handouts.  

This is an interesting video in that it made me see how much a part of our economy illegal migrant workers are, though of course not all workers are illegal.  Living in California we should be especially aware of how much we rely on them.  What we see as an immigration "problem" is really an aid to our community as well as theirs.  We get people to farm our fields which in turn puts food on the shelves of our stores, which in turn gives the rest of Californians something to eat.  If we deported all the "illegal" workers, who would be picking our crops for our stores? Surely not the white Republicans who have such an issue with it.  

But this brings up a touchy subject for Americans.  Its a double edged sword of topics, do we let the illegal workers flock to the U.S. for migrant work and let them make money to feed their families? Or do we continue to complain that their "taking our jobs"?