How does Illegal Immigration Affect Jobs?
Submitted by Bill Mitchell on May 14, 2007 - 6:56pm. News | Immigration: Cost of Freedom
We begin tonight with our month long look at illegal immigration.

Tonight we look at jobs.

Are illegal workers taking jobs Americans need and want?

And are they forcing wages down?

WDEF News 12's Bill Mitchell continues the series of reports you'll see Only on 12.

This is the scene along the Mexican border every day...thousands of people entering the U.S. without an invitation and with little resistance. They are not here to visit Disneyland or see a Braves game. They come to work...and the jobs are waiting here for them.

The Pew Hispanic Center..a research group, says there are more than 7 million unauthorized workers in the U.S.....about 5% of the labor force.

In another report Pew says the average weekly earnings for unauthorized males is over 480 dollars a week. That's a fortune compared to wages in Mexico and central America. And these mostly uneducated illegals bring something business owners want.

SOL "I know we really need them..because they work really hard."

Sol Rodriguez is from Puerto Rico and she teaches English to Spanish speakers for Chattanooga State. She doesn't ask where her students like Jose come from.

JOSE "sometimes the Americans don't want to do the job, hard job, you know. And the Mexicans,, the Mexicans do it."

Reverend Mike Sealy directs St. Andrews Center.... which helps smooth the path of immigrants in this area. He says there are about 25 different ethnic groups In Chattanooga...these primarily from central America..not Mexico.

REV. MIKE SEALY, ST. ANDREWS CENTER "these folks pay much more in sales taxes and other kinds of indirect taxes than they ever get back from any kind of services."

That may be true in Tennessee and Georgia..but national figures tell a different story.

In a CBS report ....it's stated that Illegal Immigration costs taxpayers 26-billion dollars a year.

Mike Sealy says maybe so...but he once heard this from church members...

REV. MIKE SEALY "we're hiring these folks because we can't find local people for the 8, 9 and 10 dollars an hour to help work tobacco and pick tomatoes."

Immigration experts have plenty to say about that.....

D.A. KING, IMMIGRATION REFORM ADVOCATE "there are no jobs Americans won't do...there are wages for which Americans can not live with any dignity in their own country."

http://wdef.com/node/5035