You often hear that illegal immigrants do the jobs that Americans won’t do, most usually because they’re low-paying or dirty or demeaning or what have you. But that’s not a good argument because if illegal immigrants weren’t there to do the jobs, then the employers would have to pay better wages under better conditions in order to find people willing to do the work.
No one who’s serious about this debate is saying that immigration is bad. Only an idiot could ignore the fact that immigration is a bonus to the US, especially because so many immigrants come from historically Catholic countries with compatible cultures which could lead to easy assimilation.
The problem is illegal immigration, which creates an easily exploitable underclass. If we really cared about people’s human dignity, we wouldn’t let them become illegals in the first place. We’d either help improve the conditions in their own countries or create encouragements to only go through the legal immigration process. We wouldn’t set them up to be taken advantage of by “coyotes” and slaveowners and crime bosses.
Technorati Tags: immigration
