The ongoing debate over the role of illegal aliens in the U.S. workforce has sunk to a new, saturated fat-filled low. According to the New York Times, Florida-based Burger King has spearheaded an effort to rescind carefully crafted agreements between labor activists and major fast food chains, including Taco Bell and McDonald’s, to pass a penny per pound surcharge on to migrant workers who pick tomatoes, many of whom are illegal.
Meanwhile, in a nod to its master, the state’s largest grower’s group, the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange, said that it will not allow any of its members to collect the extra penny for farm workers calling the practice “pretty much near un-American.” The group is threatening to fine any grower who defies its directive $100,000.Give me your tired, your poor…..whatever Emma Lazarus, what do you know? These days the patriotic thing to do is to line the pockets of the robber barrons, er…private equity mangers.
Meanwhile, on the left coast, illustrating the gaping and growing gulf between the nation’s xenophobes and xenophiles, producers are shopping around a new reality show called, “Who Wants to Marry a U.S. Citizen.”The show’s creator Adrian Martinez told Reuters that contestants – mostly Hispanic immigrants – are already signed up and describes the concept as “this generation’s ‘Dating Game,’ but with a twist – it aims to show love knows no borders.”
Judging by the anticipated surge of reality TV due to the ongoing writers strike, the show might have a good chance of being picked up and taking over where Congress and the Bush administration dropped the ball on their own legal path to citizenship. Plus it will certainly be more interesting than Big Brother 23.
