I find it troubling that we take advantage of anyone, including illegal aliens. The behind-the-scenes guilty parties here are the businesses themselves. They have opted for the cheaper labor and know they don't have to pay the cost of workers comp, Social Security, etc.
Your article suggests that we now have a service industry that must have these people to survive. I would challenge that assumption. No one has been able to satisfactorily demonstrate, with real numbers, that of the 6.1 percent unemployed currently out there, that enough of those would be unwilling to work at these physically demanding jobs.
The question that should be asked is: From an employer's point of view, when two people come looking for a job and the choice is to hire — for the same hourly wage — an American or an illegal alien, which one would be hired, if the employer had to pay workers comp, taxes and Social Security for the American worker?
That is the issue.
Until we start holding businesses accountable for their un-American and illegal choices, this problem will continue.
Russell Sias
Provo