Thanks to persistent unemployment and low availability of low-skill jobs, Shenandoah Family Farms’ ice cream plant in Hagerstown, Maryland has received over 1,600 applicants for a grand total of 36 jobs. Many of those applicants are former workers at the Good Humor plant that was bought by Shenandoah Family Farms. “You’d think that after 20-some-years working someplace at least somebody would think you area a good person, that you’d show up on time every day, and that would be worth something,” Luther Brooks, a 50-year-old former worker at the plant told the Washington Post. “I can’t get nothing. I’ve tried.”
Nonetheless, both Republicans and Democrats in Washington continue to maintain that America requires more unskilled, cheap labor via immigration, despite the loss of 6 million factory jobs between 2000 and 2009. That has been the pitch from immigration reform advocates, who insist that the cure-all for the American economy is an endless supply of less educated migrants to fill “do the jobs Americans won’t.”
Meanwhile, Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley (D) is pushing a $4.5 million effort to retrain workers in other industries, including “green jobs.” While 85 former workers at the plant have taken advantage of the program, just 49 have been able to secure permanent employment.
Ben Shapiro is Editor-At-Large of Breitbart News and author of the New York Times bestseller “Bullies: How the Left’s Culture of Fear and Intimidation Silences America” (Threshold Editions, January 8, 2013). He is also Editor-in-Chief of TruthRevolt.org. Follow Ben Shapiro on Twitter @benshapiro.