The US Economy is Dependent On Illegal Immigrants
Last year, the government shutdown and the migrant caravan that was heading for the border rocked headlines and spread the news of illegal immigration. In general, two pictures of illegal immigrants were painted: poor, starving families who wanted better lives, and terrorists carting drugs and bombs into the country. While there could be immigrants with those intentions, I’m not talking about them today. I’m talking about those who make up a majority of the illegal immigrant population; illegal workers.
There are millions of illegal workers in the US right now, and they dominate the industries of low skilled agricultural and construction work in certain regions of the country. Illegal workers are typically limited to low skilled, low wage jobs because of their lack of green cards. Companies know that these workers are willing to accept well below minimum wage, and they frequently take advantage of that. Illegal immigrants are forced to be more accepting of jobs in poor conditions that US workers are less likely to take. That makes them a source of cheap labor that farmers and companies rely on. Several companies make money by hiring cheap illegal labor and selling their products for cheaper than their competitors because of the lack of high labor costs. While this practice undoubtedly undercuts US companies and forces US workers to accept lower wages, the economy relies on it. The cheap labor keeps produce and construction prices down, and without illegal immigrants prices would skyrocket.
In addition, low skilled industries would suffer a labor shortage without illegal immigrants. According to Pew Research Center, 71 percent of Americans believe illegal immigrants fill jobs Americans don’t want to do. Without the immigrants to fill these jobs, millions of jobs would be left empty without Americans to fill them in the midst of the current low unemployment rates. Not only would the labor shortage force some companies out of business, but it would force others to pay higher wages to attract workers. That would rise prices across various industries and hurt the economy.
The truth that illegal immigrants are as important to the economy as other US workers has recently been shrouded away amidst the struggle over illegal immigration. With President Trump proposing a border wall on the Mexico-US border, the White House is attempting to paint a negative picture of illegal immigrants. And while there is some truth to the fact that low-wage earning Americans are undercut by these immigrants, the general population is helped more than hurt by them, as difficult as that truth may be for some to accept.
