Where is the proof, that cheap labor saves the U.S. millions of dollars each year ?

sociald

it saves the companies who hire illegals millions each year but it sure doesnt save the USA millions each year, quite the opposite.

Razor Jim

The net cost of illegals is 70 billion dollars per year. So any savings because they work cheap does not go to the American tax payer. Only Mexico, illegals and the employers benefit. Facts are facts, but illegals and their supporters only go on emotion.

Problem Child

Immigration and the Economy

Current levels of immigration are not beneficial to our countryâ€™s economy, its fiscal well-being, or the health of our labor market. In fact, immigration is a drain on the economy; the net annual cost of immigration has been estimated at between $67 and $87 billion a year.1 The National Academy of Sciences found that the net fiscal drain on American taxpayers is between $166 and $226 a year per native household. Even studies claiming some modest overall gain for the economy from immigration ($1 to $10 billion a year) have found that it is outweighed by the fiscal cost ($15 to $20 billion a year) to native taxpayers.2 In short, the average native taxpayer is paying for immigration so that large companies can profit by employing immigrants in low-wage positions.

That immigration does not help the economy should come as no surprise, since, in a sense, we are importing poverty. One out of every five poor people is an immigrant.3 Furthermore, the earning power of these poor immigrants is deteriorating and is likely to remain low throughout their working lives, according to the RAND Insitute.4

While businesses like to enjoy the low-wage labor supplied by high immigration, it comes at a price. Part of that price is lost productivity. Business and social transaction costs rise, as time, effort, and money are spent overcoming language and cultural barriers.5 â€œPoor English skills among foreign-born residents cost more than $75 billion a year in lost productivity, wages, tax revenue and unemployment compensation,â€ says Ohio University economist Lowell Gallaway.6

Another price that society pays for immigration is the widening gap between rich and poor, an effect noted by the U.S. Council of Economic Advisors.7 The effect of immigration on low-skilled Americans is profound: â€œUndoubtedly, access to lower-wage foreign workers has a depressing effect [on wages].â€8 Government research suggests that 50 percent of wage-loss among low-skilled Americans is due to the immigration of low-skilled workers.9 In 1996, analysis of all the metropolitan areas with over a million residents found that the higher the immigrant population in the city, the smaller the size of the middle class.10

The jobs immigration does create are often for other immigrants and at the expense of Americans. â€œOnce in place, ethnic hiring networks are self-reproducing since each new employee recruits others from his or her own group.â€11 A GAO study found that a decade of heavy immigration to Los Angeles had changed the janitorial industry from a mostly unionized native black workforce to one of non-unionized immigrants.12

According to the Census, the employment of black Americans as hotel workers in California dropped 30 percent in the 1980s, while the number of immigrants with such jobs rose 166 percent. â€œIndeed, many of the positive aspects of entrepreneurship have a negative dimension that is not often acknowledged. The ethnic solidarity hypothesized to be conducive to immigrant business can be seen in another light, as exclusionary and clannish, impeding access to business and employment opportunities for the native-born. The informal business transactions in immigrant communities that are normally regulated by gossip and ostracism can sometimes be enforced in ways that are distinctly illegal.â€13

As immigrants come to occupy a niche, we grow dependent on continued immigration. Wayne Cornelius, a political scientist at UC San Diego, found [in a three-year study] that unskilled immigrant labor is increasingly structurally embedded in the economy, especially in California, â€œwhere immigrants have largely replaced U.S.-born workers in many occupations, from electronics assembler to gardener to domestic worker.â€14 â€œNetwork recruitment [of immigrants] not only excludes American workers from certain jobs; it also builds a dependency relationship between U.S. employers and Mexican sources that requires a constant infusion of new workers.â€15 â€œAs foreign students increasingly dominate these demanding fields, fewer and fewer Americans will enter them. Thus not only are Americans being displaced from these jobs now, but the candidates for these jobs in the future will increasingly be non-Americans. If this continues long enough, we will end up with ever-fewer American-born scientists, engineers, computer scientists, programmers, and mathematicians; perhaps none at all.â€16

I Love Mutts

I agree. They keep saying that without the illegal workforce, we would be in trouble, but they never show proof.
And the money that is spent for healthcare, english as a second language classes, and other social services adds up to billions, so how are we saving anything???

Francesca Thomas

the companies supposedly hire ilegals to work for $5 or $6 an hour. Most Americans cannot afford to work for such low wages, and the companies need to pay the lowest wage possible to make more profits for their shareholders.

Cheap labour doesnt save AMERICA any money, it MAKES the companies huge profits. Because the companies can still SELL their products and services at whatever price they choose.

Princess Buffy

I agree, it is jsut an excuse to destroy us. I would kindly pay more if it were made is USA or any Euro country

Out of here

A farmer doesn't get paid any more or less for his produce no matter WHO he hires to pick it. He pockets the profit he gets by hiring an illegal criminal alien. In other words, it's a MYTH that the price of produce would go up if illegal aliens were not here. The cost of "picking the produce" is a very small percentage of the entire cost of getting produce to market anyway...common sense.

Only 17% of illegal criminal aliens work in"agriculture" anyway.

Do you think we're gonna pay $150 for a motel room at Motel 6 if illegal criminal aliens are deported because they aren't working as a janitor or maid there anymore??

Are we gonna pay $15 for a hamburger a McDonalds if illegal criminal aliens are deported?

Are we going to pay $5 million dollars for a house if we no longer have illegal criminal aliens working in construction??

That "picking produce" argument is SO lame!!

If taking into account total expenditures for getting produce to market, and the cost of "picking the produce" was 5% of that cost, say it increased to 10% of the cost after deporting the illegal aliens, we could realistically see an increase of around 5%, perhaps a bit more.

And that's even agreeing with the poster that the consumer absorbs the cost of the labor, which is FALSE.

ProUSA2

NONAME

Where is your proof that 2 million illegal criminal aliens used ITINs last year?

My link below shows what ITINs are intended for, and it's NOT illegal criminal aliens.

http://www.irs.gov/individuals/article/0,,id=96287,00.html

They are intended for resident and non-resident aliens.
Illegal aliens are neither.
Again, where's your proof?? If 2 million total were issued, the majority of those were to resident and non-resident aliens.

Another claim you made. Where is your proof that 8 million cases of SS#s not matching names are all attributable to illegal alien criminals?? Are you claiming these were all identity theft felons??
Identity theft/using a false ID is a felony in case you weren't aware.

Suze

Judging from the presidential candidates who all support amnesty, this issue will sadly go ignored. They believe it's acceptable to think like this:
Let's say you own a business and there are two people applying for a job there.
#1 Person is a HS graduate who was born and raised in the USA so he speaks English and can do the job. However, he expects to be paid minimum wage or better and receive a proper pay check stub.

#2 Person is an illegal Mexican with little English but can do the job. Since he's hungry and undocumented, he will work for LESS than minimum wage in Cash so there's no paper trail or withholding taxes.

Who would YOU hire?

I would say this source supports your views best.

Ellis Wyatt

Excellent question. Sadly, the supporters of illegal immigration care nothing about "proof" or "facts" or "reality".

Penny

What they don't make in the fields, they take out of taxpayer social services and doctor/hospital care. What they do make either goes back to their country or for another electronic gadget. Therefore, the cheap labor saves the US nothing. It costs us more.

R J

Don't hold your breathe. Deal is they are asking what the market will bear and do the work. The others are being paid with false documentation and if they do that, then why wouldn't they get a tax return, both are serious offenses, No? Take care. They were welcomed in New Orleans by the big companies so they would not have to pay union wage, with travel pay, insurance, dues, etc. I wonder how the hospitals are holding out. Actually the big companies coud pay, but like a friend told me he made $430 a day just counting dump trucks full of trash, but he did have to pay for his own food and hotel. Take care.

delina_m

Kick them all out and then we'll see. Hopefully we don't have to end up calling them all back...

Leuroth

bad things comes out of good things, you should focus more on some serious problem like the spending on war in Iraq

Kate

For me, I don't think it same much money. However, if you look about the job that illegal immigrants do mostly labor jobs which American citizen refuse to do. You can't really find anyone want to do labor jobs.

I believe, no one want to work here illegal. Most illegal immigrants want to work here legally because there are more opportunity for them.

Why don't you guys let them work in the United States legally by offer them work permit(Limit that they cannot apply for green card), which they need to apply for it. Government get extra money from a person who apply for the permit. You might want to limited their job and minimum wage. They have to report tax. It's a good thing for the government again.

This is just my idea.

NONAME

higher wages means higher costs of goods
Raise minimum wage everything else will go up as well

ie. Unions have forced high wages on the auto manufactures forcing them to move plant overseas to compete with the imports.

Will L

you are paying $10,000 for that lettuce you are so proud of for 99 cents.

Nani Girl

Well, get off your butt, go to the grocery store and take a look at the prices of vegetables and fruit. Now if you want fresh fruit and vegetables at the decent prices that they are, you need cheap labor. No way in hell, will most Americans work under the hot sun, picking strawberries for the sorry wages they get paid.

BOB

I have a solution. It may be controversial on both sides of the political spectrum as it would create somewhat of an apartheid type situation, but it would be a win-win for all of us. What if we had a way of harnessing the cheap labor of immigrants while at the same time provided a way for them to legally work and pay into the system eg. SSI. We would also have to increase the corporate top marginal tax rate to Pre-Reagan levels ie. 70ish%. This would provide incentive for big business to invest and the U.S. would reap the rewards of cheaper American made goods and a windfall of corporate taxes to pay off our debt. There are a few catches though. First off, an immigrant non-resident worker would not be entitled to any type of social benefits until he/she became a resident. Also, they would earn a lower minimum wage than a resident would. One of the requirements to becoming a resident would be proficiency in the English language. One of the biggest problems of illegal immigration is the insular communities it creates within our cities, of which the whites that got left behind during white flight bear the brunt of lol. Many immigrants have no incentive to learn English or assimilate because of the insular bubble that is encouraged in part by not having a faster path and tangible benefits to citizenship. With what I'm proposing, there would be very real benefits to a migrant to get his act together and become a resident since he is already legitimately in the system rather than leading a shadow insular life that avoids the system out of fear of prosecution. Of course there would be details to iron out but with the above framework I think we can make common sense reforms to immigration law while reaping some serious cheap labor power. After all, if we can't compete on the world stage as a manufacturer of goods, we will slowly see our GDP shrink while China flourishes.

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