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Posted on Mon, Feb. 26, 2007


UNSKILLED WORKERS NEEDED
Work with immigration problem to solve it

By Tom Propps


After a recent federal bust of illegal immigrants in a meatpacking plant in the Midwest, Homeland Security Secretary Chertoff said, "You can't restore the rule of law until you respond to the law of supply and demand." The demand Chertoff was referring to is the increasing job vacancies U.S. employers cannot fill with American laborers. The Department of Labor Statistics predicts the creation of 56 million new jobs between 2005 and 2012, half requiring less than a high school education. This demand for unskilled labor is showing up in business after business. On the Grand Stand, motels struggle to hire and retain housekeepers. The prospects for the restaurant business are even bleaker. With 12.5 million workers nationwide, their demand for labor is expected to grow 15 percent between 2005 and 2015. But the number of native-born workers between the ages of 16 and 24, the key demographic for the restaurant trade, will not expand at all. While all jobs cannot be outsourced, a growing number will be if this labor demand is not satisfied.

Yet today too many Americans seem to cherish ignorance, by repudiating the "law of supply and demand." According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, well over 500 immigrant-related bills have been introduced in state legislatures nationwide in the past two years, even though the ultimate authority lies with the federal government. These bills do not address the growing shortage of labor needed in U.S. businesses, but propose half-baked actions such as imposing fines on employers or landlords for hiring or renting to illegal immigrants. Most of these proposals will simply drive the undocumented workers further underground. These efforts reflect a disgruntled, misinformed public that clings to one-sentence sound bites that simply do not hold water. Let's examine some of them.

They take jobs from U.S. workers and keep wages low.

Rather than taking jobs from U.S. workers, they have expanded the need for more workers. More low-skilled workers mean more jobs and higher wages for skilled workers. For example, in the building trade, more work done by unskilled workers means more jobs for plumbers, electricians, architects, etc. Immigrants sometime help to keep some jobs from being outsourced because they work harder for less wages. In addition, the contribution of immigrants expands our economy by their increased gross domestic product spending for food, clothing, appliances, etc. What would happen to our used car business without immigrants?

They take public school slots toward which their parents pay no taxes.

True, many immigrants are poor and unskilled, which reduces their tax contribution, but even illegal immigrants pay sales taxes when they purchase items and indirectly pay property taxes when they pay a landlord. Also most illegal immigrants have taxes withheld from their paychecks. In fact, the Social Security Administration collects some $7 billion a year that goes unclaimed, most of it thought to come from unauthorized workers.

They came here illegally and should be treated as criminals.

Come on, now. The only Americans who have a legitimate complaint with illegal immigration are the American Indians. Most illegal immigrants today came here not only with the tacit consent of our government but also while assisting them with Spanish to English translations in almost every phase of their daily life. Because an illegal act is committed against someone only without his/her consent, I prefer to call them undocumented immigrants.

Each year for the past decade or so, market forces have brought about 1.5 million immigrants to work in the U.S., but annual quotas admit only a million. As a result about half a million workers, mostly unskilled from Latin America, cross our border each year to work here. Even though the U.S. has tripled the size of our border patrol and quintupled its budget over the past decade, still about the same number of immigrants have entered our country each year.

How do we restore the rule of law while providing sufficient labor for the demands of businesses? At least two steps must be taken simultaneously. First, we must document all U.S. workers. Fines of $1,000 to $1,500 should be imposed on all undocumented immigrants while providing them a path to citizenship or a green card. If we collect 75 percent of these fines from an estimated 6 million to 8 million unauthorized workers, we will have considerably more money to control and secure our borders. If we have all immigrant workers paying into our social security and medicare systems, it will help offset the impending baby boomers' drain on these entitlements.

Second, we must increase our immigration quotas to meet the demands of business, at least by as much as a half million a year. With more liberal quotas, immigrants will apply for documentation instead of sneaking across our borders, and we can concentrate more on securing our borders from terrorists.

Most Americans take pride in our heritage as a nation of immigrants. We have shown the world that free-market capitalism is the best way to organize a society.

Throughout our history we have made the most progress when we have chosen engagement over isolationism, openness over protectionism and multiculturalism over nativism. Why regress now?


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The writer lives in Myrtle Beach.





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