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I appreciate Mr. Bourdain's insight into the restaurant industry. While I enjoy his biting wit and commentary, I must disagree with his conclusion that the industry would shut down due to the crackdown of illegal immigrants.

I know of 2 US-born citizens who applied for jobs as dishwashers, one at Cracker Barrel and the other at Applebee's. To say that these jobs will not be filled by American workers is disingenuous and presumptious.

Yes, restaurants may be forced to pay a real wage to their dishwashers. I do not believe this would be a bad thing, however.

I agree with Chef Bourdain. I am a chef at a
small boutique hotel in Virginia most of the people that are hired to do the "grunt" work in the kitchen are locals and to be honest,they suck. On even given day I have to walk the fine line of not upsetting their delicate world view when it comes to what they have to do compared to what they want to do. The actual documented workers that we do bring in during our season are driven, intelligent and want to work. This work ethic has rattled the locals to no end. If I had to chance to bring in "illegals" I would.

I was a US citizen who applied for a dishwashing job. Or at least I tried -- the chef took one look at my white face and baldfacedly lied that the position had been filled.

Eventually he hired a skinny kid from Asia. Perhaps he had prejudices about the work ethic of the locals, but I'd speculate that he found somebody he knew he could pay under the table for half of minimum wage.

Today I read your article on Illegal Immigrant Labor in U.S. Kitchens and was somewhat furious. As yourself this question, as an American, would you do these jobs meaning working in a kitchen for minumum wage and supporting a family if you have no other skills or and I know that I am going out of topic, would you work in the fields, building freeways etc., for minumum wage, I am assuming no, the real reason is that this would be beneath some of us, but they have no other choice. They come over to this country to better themself's and their families and do the dirty jobs and we complaint. Ask yourself this question, would you do it if you had no education? Another thing, we are only targeting the Mexicans, what about the other cultures, come on, let's be reasonable about this, put yourself in their places.

Illegal citizens don't have too many options to choose from for employment. Field labor,construction,restaurants and factory work are the most popular. The jobs they fill are determined by their geographical location, when they need work, they re-locate. Many are paid fair wages and use fake Social Security numbers to get jobs. The employers are paying taxes on the wages they earn.The money is going to the Government and no amount of it will become a tax refund for Pedro at the end of the year. The US is making $$$ with the illegal citizens we have. The restaurant industry is at the mercy of below middle class(BMC) workers who survive on low wages, Below middle class people can be anyone but are predominately illegal citizens. BMC white and black citizens are becoming fewer as the illegal hispanic population is increasing. I don't think the government has the resources to make any big changes at this time but they are probably trying to figure a way to benefit from their immigration failures without upsetting any of the industries that depend on BMC workers.