What if we threw out all the illegal immigrants?

[BridgeTheGap]

Overnight, some industries would become desperate for workers. The biggest beneficiaries would be low-skilled American workers. The big losers might surprise you.

At least 12 million illegal immigrants live in the U.S. Most pick crops, wash dishes, build houses, cut lawns and do other jobs for between $6 and $15 an hour. They make up about 5% of the total U.S. work force. But …

What if we threw them all out?

Lettuce and strawberries would rot in the fields. Dirty dishes would pile up in restaurants. Thousands of farmers and builders would go bust. Predator aircraft drones would prowl the Mexican border. And chunks of Los Angeles and Houston would look like ghost towns.

The biggest losers would be middle-class families with two working parents, living in high-immigrant states such as California, Texas, Florida or New York. Why? They would pay more for food, housing, entertainment and child care as a shortage of low-skilled workers drove up some wages, and therefore, some prices. Meantime, their own pay would remain the same. What's more, the ripple effect of thousands of businesses shrinking or closing for lack of staff might put one of the parents out of a job. Not to mention the garbage collection going to pot and no one to polish the missus' nails.

The winners, for a change, would be the low-skilled unemployed, living just about anywhere -- if they were willing to move. Of the 12 million illegal immigrants, about 8 million are employed, mostly in low-skill jobs. The U.S., meantime, has about 22 million less-educated jobless adults, many of them blacks and legalized Hispanics, according to a 2008 report from the Center for Immigration Studies, a research group based in Washington, D.C.

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/CollegeAndFamily/RaiseKids/WhatIfWeThrewOutAllTheIllegalImmigrants.aspx

[Popol Vuh]

1. Then there would only be us Natives.

n/t

[zbdent]

4. Excellent point!

and speaking as a son of a full-blood Pole (father) and a mix (heavily Italian in Mother), I would miss the land I grew up in ...

[Popol Vuh]

7. Speaking of missing the past

GAWD I miss the hippies I knew as a kid - I was born in 66.

Sigh, what happened to us?


:hippie:




P.S. I too get my Native blood from my father - half Mescalero Apache and Chichimec. My mother is European too (German).

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. The Choctaw, Lakota, Iroquois, Cherokee, Creek, Wampanoag,

and other Nations would breathe a sigh of relief!

[Breeze54]

3. "The biggest beneficiaries would be low-skilled American workers." (?)

"Most pick crops, wash dishes, build houses, cut lawns and do other jobs for between $6 and $15 an hour.

They make up about 5% of the total U.S. work force."

Just like all Americans!! The US Unemployment rate is at 5.5 % !!

$15.00 an hour isn't to shabby in todays economy and there are many citizens out of work right now!

[fasttense]

5. Oh right, this country runs on illegal labor. I forgot. n/t

[zbdent]

6. maybe the "middle class" would end up being saved ...

remember, when the jobs were plentiful and the workers were relatively few in the late 90s? The companies had to pay more for their workers ...

Of course, once the Repukes took control of the White House, the House, the Senate, the Supreme Court, etc., this country became EXTREMELY friendly to businesses which used illegal immigrants as their labor force ...

[Balbus]

8. I'd be out of a job...

:(

[Romulox]

9. Who were the big losers/winners after Emancipation?

Perhaps middle-class comfort isn't a good justification for neo-slavery?

[asteroid2003QQ47]

10. There would be enough for everyone and everything remaining!