These guys (and gals) are the people who do most of the dirty work here in California. They do most of the unpleasant agricultural work, like harvesting, much of the construction, and just about any other hard labor you can think of. Many of them don't have their citizenship papers, so they don't have any real rights... so for this reason they may be charged under minimum wage or not compensated for injury. In some ways, they can even be compared to slaves, in that they do the work no one else will and are treated poorly. But unlike slaves, they can leave. The main reason these people are willing to put up with so much shit is that no matter how little they make, they will still be well-off in Mexico because US money is worth so much there. Most of these people aren't trying to sneak into the US to start a new life, they just want to earn some money to take home

I get to work with a bunch of these guys at my current job. They do harder work than anyone else and get paid less, but they aren't paid under minimum wage or mistreated there. The guys I work with work their butts off but have a really easygoing attitude which makes them good to work with (in fact more so than most of the white people at my job). While working, they mainly talk shit to each other, accusing people of being gay then asking if they can have butt sex... very strange. Sadly, homosexuality is rejected in this society, so some of them actually are gay but can never express this because it's not accepted.. so instead they get married to girls they don't love

The Mexican immigrant workers, although much maligned for 'stealing' jobs, actually hold up a large portion of the backbone of California's economy, doing jobs no one else wants anyway. There has been talk of granting these people work visas, so they can come and go without having to pay 1000 dollars to get smuggled across the border every year. It's one of the only things GW Bush has said that i agree with and i hope it happens.