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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]If your concern is to replenish the tax base, then it seems that welcoming masses of minimum-wage people who are likely to require substantial - and costly - public benefits.  A much better solution would be to increase the number of educated, well-paid immigrants whose incomes, spending and attendant tax contributions will inject much more fuel into the economy.

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Bingo.[/quote]

No. We need immigrants in services, agriculture, construction, etc. The reason we have so many undocumented immigrants is because there is a demand for them that the legal immigration system does not meet. These people come here and work harder than anyone and contribute to our economy. The legal immigration system is not working. [/quote]

If you're here legally, then you're most likely educated. So you won't be working in construction or in farming.  But once you're in - and legal to work - you do benefit society by increasing the tax base.

If you're uneducated or low-skilled, you'll take whatever is offered.  I was slapped earlier for saying that our youth (citizens) won't take menial jobs.  Someone said I was basically pushing for "child labor."  lol  - Clearly that person doesn't know his/her history.

Anyway, it's not a one-answer solution.  Our own young people need to understand a work ethic.  And those entering who are low-skilled can indeed perform some of the back-breaking work.  However, they need to be on the books and they need protections from abuse.  Entering illegally may offer protections early on, but if they manage to stay under the radar after entering, they can suffer abuses.

You either enter legally or you return.  Illegal immigration poses more problems than not.  And before some you neo libs attack me, you're the ones slamming big corporations for hiring illegal immigrants and forcing them to work in abusive situations.  So let me shut you down right now.

You enter through legal measures, and maybe that means that the US needs to revamp its immigration pathway.  [/quote]

This is OP. Thank you for your response - you actually end up in a place where I think we agree (revamp immigration pathway).  My only quibble is I'm not sure that inculcating a "work ethic" in kids that have alternatives to back-breaking, low-skilled work is likely to be successful.  They are rational actors, so they are going to pick the careers that are less back-breaking if they can.  Our job as a nation is to ensure that we respect the workers doing the back-breaking work by making sure they get a decent wage & workplace safety & health care.  [/quote]

NP. The real solution is that the employers behind the "back-breaking" work need to increase pay, benefits, and worker protections so that American citizens will take the jobs. Increase slaughterhouse, agricultural, janitorial, etc. pay to $18-20/hour plus benefits, and Americans (especially the ones who are low-skilled and/or don't have college educations, of which there are plenty) will take the jobs. If we are relying on undocumented immigrants to keep prices of commodities low, that means they're artificially low. If prices need to go up to make these jobs attractive to American citizens and not exploit anyone, so be it. The solution is not to just keep turning a blind eye to illegal immigration "because we need low-skilled immigrants to take the jobs Americans won't." There are millions of Americans who don't go to college and are otherwise "working-class." So the real questions we should be asking are WHY won't Americans take those jobs, and how can we change that?

I recognize that Republicans don't want to do this - so this would actually be a very effective Democratic response to all of their messaging re: illegal immigration and would put them on the defensive. And would be way better messaging from the Democrats than what they're currently saying.

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I'm a Republican and agree completely with you.  Many Republicans feel raising the minimum wage is a good idea.[/quote]

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