Dine out or eat chicken, or fruit and vegetables grown in America? If yes, then an illegals was probably involved. Many of our small and large businesses depend on migrant labor.

During one of my previous occupations, I was asked to sell a landscaping business. Most of the landscapers I contacted used illegal laborers to operate. Few locals were willing to do the hard dirty work that clients could pay. I got the same responses from restaurateurs.

Many people say we should deport all illegals and then prohibit immigration. About a decade ago Alabama’s Republican controlled government passed a law punishing all businesses that hired illegals. Businesses suffered, crops rotted in the fields, and prices rose. Two years later they quietly revoked the law. The next year the families moved back and life returned to normal.

When I asked the landscapers why they stayed all year, it was because they weren’t sure they could sneak back next spring. Many brought their families up for the same reason.

The owners hired illegals because the locals didn’t want to do the work since it is dirty and hot with long hours. Alabama thought teenagers and unemployed would do the work – they didn’t.

If we had the sensible work visas that the right wing congress wouldn’t pass for the last several years, we would have a manageable immigration problem. Families would stay in their home towns and the workers would go back and forth as needed.

Trump’s wall will only boost the shovel and ladder business in Mexico. If we had a workable visa system we could save the billions he wants to waste on a wall. Visas first — walls second!