At conventional (ie, legit) wages, there is no shortage of people willing to do construction work, especially at union rates.
Most people think that jobs like mechanics’, carpenters’, plumbers’, etc — pay squat.
You’re oh-so-wrong if you think this.
At legit wage rates (non-union), these are well-paying jobs. We’re talking $25/hour and up.
At union rates, they’re fantastic paying jobs. Think $35/hour and up, especially on overtime jobs. On union job sites here in Nevada, the people you see standing in traffic, flagging traffic to go around construction? They’re being paid $25 and up. To wave a little flag in traffic.
There’s NO shortage of people willing to be paid $25/hour to wave a little flag on road construction sites. None.
That’s why the illegals moved into the construction industry so quickly during the recent housing boom: subs (ie, sub-contractor) companies found that they could get lots of contracts with generals (ie, general contractors) on these large housing developments by employing illegals and undercutting *all* the legit competition on blind price bids where there was no requirement for verifying the employment of people by the subs.
If employers are forced to verify employment eligibility, forced to pay legit wages and taxes, penalized for employing illegals, etc — they price differential for employing suddenly legit former illegals simply vanishes. If the illegals made legit by this proposed legislation are then unionized, they’re not going to be paid minimum wage, I can assure you.
This is why I don’t get why the business community is thinking they’re going to get something wonderful out of this comprehensive immigration “reform” — unless it will do nothing to stem the flow of illegals, which it obviously wouldn’t. The illegals who become legal suddenly will find themselves out of work just as low-skilled US workers have been displaced by illegals. This blows a huge hole in the argument(s) by the business community that this legislation “regularizes” illegals and makes them legit. If it did, then business employment costs would go up very quickly, which is exactly what these business don’t want.
So you and I are in high agreement that the legislation won’t do anything to cure illegals coming in. What I’m saying is that the claims by the business community about the results of the legislation and the business effects of the results of the legislation are at variance, and the variance isn’t one beneficial to those business employing illegals.
You’re never going to see the pansy politicians in DC use force to drive out the illegals. Ain’t gonna happen. They lack the spine and testicular fortitude to enforce our borders, which would be necessary before you start rounding up people and shipping them back, so they don’t just turn around and come right back in.
You’re going to need a physical barrier first. Then you’re going to have to round up some of them (ala Eisenhower’s tactics) to set an example, and then come down on employers with airtight employment eligibility verification, with safe harbor for employers to fire anyone who gets a SSA “variance” letter or to not hire anyone who has ID problems come back from a government ID check. Once you have the employers on the hook for verifying ID’s, then the illegal ID mills dry up, the ID thefts dry up, the illegals find they have no ID documents to either get jobs or get social services, and they have no economic base of support. They’re going to go home (or somewhere else), rather than starve here.
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With all due respect - and IMO you are due a lot - the above statement says a lot. You don't "get it" for the simple reason that you are allowing yourself to dabble in a little wishful thinking. What the business community gets out of it is they know they will still be able to get Mexican workers at much less than American workers are willing to work and since they are made legal they won't have to worry about the people getting fed up and forcing the politicians to start packing up their cheap Mexican labor force and sending them back home. The benefit to them is they know the Mexicans will continue to work for a cheaper wage. At least give the Mexicans credit for enough sense to know where their advantage truly is - they are willing to do the same work for much less. Don't expect them to become so stupid that they immediately start asking for the same wages. They are fully aware the reason they are being hired is not because these employers really love Mexicans. The benefit of any amnesty to both employers and illegals is it continues to allow them to be in this country (now legally where nothing can be done) and continue to undercut American wages by doing the job for less.
I truly believe you are fooling yourself here although I can't say I blame you much.
The reason all of a sudden that this amnesty bill is such a priority is that the politicians and big business abusers of illegal immigration started to get a sniff of the direction the wind is blowing. The reason they all of a sudden want amnesty is they can hear the people heading to the point of forcing them to put the illegals o-u-t.
It is not the presence of illegals that drive wages down, it is the presence of Mexicans for the simple reason that they are more than willing to work for much less. Likely they always will assuming Mexico doesn't clean up their own economic situation.
Not only do I believe we need to remove illegals, we also need to greatly curb the amount of legal immigration we allow in from Mexico to really fix this problem.
I'm not holding my breath on either.