The forces that draw an estimated 500,000 people here illegally yearly are the laws of supply and demand. Although these workers come here because they desperately need work, our economy badly needs them, too. The key to understanding why, as immigration expert Tamar Jacoby wrote recently in Foreign Affairs, is one statistic: In 1960, half of American men dropped out of high school to look for work. Less than 10 percent do so today.

According to an analysis by the Migration Policy Institute, 11 of the 15 occupations projected to undergo the largest job growth in absolute numbers by 2014 won't require a bachelor's degree. These include retail sales people, home health aides, truck drivers, janitors, waiters and cooks. Without illegal immigrants, the meatpacking, agriculture, construction and hospitality industries in our country would already be hurting for workers.
In other words, what we need is MORE high school dropouts that will go to work. I don't know what the 50+% of those that are dropping out now are doing. Geez, who would have known, our economy is based on people with little or NO EDUCATION. Does this woman really believe that less than 10% of people are dropping out???? Or, I suppose, the other 40% are dropping out to become full-time welfare mothers or drug dealers.

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