Are the illegal Guest Workers actually holding up our economy?

[Philosoraptor]

I don't understand mega economics, but I suspect that if we suddenly removed the 12 to 20 million illegal immigrants, our overall economy would suffer, perhaps even collapse.

Am I way off base here? CEO's would never get their 50 million dollar bonuses at the end of the year if it weren't for the lowly, hard working, low wage, no benefits, desperate, illegal guest worker.

How important are illegal immigrants to our economy?

[wakeme2008]

1. Well for one thing LOTS of things would increase in price

The Repugs LOVE using cheap illegals for their lawn care / car wash/ construction but want to kick out all others. :shrug:

[sinkingfeeling]

2. It would have a very negative effect on our economy. You could begin with deducting the

cost of food for 20 million or more people, the rents and mortgages paid, the clothing (Wal-Mart might see a 30% drop in revenue), and then take out the $millions of taxes (state sales tax, state and federal income tax and SS deductions) that the 'illegals' pay each year.

[Philosoraptor]

3. Yet another reason why we won't be deporting anyone soon.

The great economy they keep bragging about is FALSE, and based on slave labor.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

4. If they were given full amnesty the question would be moot.

Then they could vote, unionize, strike, even sue their employers. But, it's much more convenient and PC to play on the unfounded fears and xenophobia of Americans to keep them as an underclass to be exploited.

[Marrah_G]

6. And for all those reasons they would be replaced by the new ones coming over the borders.

These employers do not want legal employees with rights and complaints. They want quiet workers who shut up and do as they are told.

Unless the borders are closed and the employers are held to account for their crimes, amnesty won't change anything.

If they could manage to stop those two things I wouldn't have a problem letting all illegals without records get green cards.

[pampango]

8. It seems to me that more illegal immigrants are coming regardless

of whether those already here are given "amnesty" (the conservative buzz word) to those already here.

The options for the 12 million already here are to simply stay illegally, return home voluntarily, or be forcibly deported.

The latter would be unbelievable expensive and a PR and humanitarian disaster. Plus neither the Repubs (love the cheap labor) or Democrats (it's the liberals like Kennedy who are pushing amnesty) are going to push such a policy.

Voluntary return would require that condition here were worse for them than conditions in Mexico. Since the difference in the economies is so great that would take time for conditions for poor Mexicans here to get much, much worse before they decided to return to conditions that they had run away from. Conservatives might stand by while that happened, I don't think that liberals would.

Finally, legalization makes it more difficult to exploit the immigrants who are here and should lead to more Democratic voters down the road. (That's why Rush calls this the "Republican Party Destruction Act of 2007 - and blames Kennedy for it). Legalization is not an ideal solution, but it is better than the alternatives.

[fed-up]

5. I talked to a real estate investor that owns 76 apts in Iowa-rented/maintained by "illegals"

She said it was a great way to make money and that evictions when needed were a piece of cake.

She also stated that she had her "illegal" maintenance workers sign a piece of paper stating that if they fell off the roof or got injured while doing work for her that it was "their fault" and that they could not sue her. She also was proud that she only had to pay cash wages of $7-8 an hour for jobs like roofing, painting, plumbing etc..

I was more than disgusted when she spoke.

edited to add that the investor lives in California...

[sinkingfeeling]

9. So why haven't you reported her illegal actions to the INS?

[unpossibles]

7. I recently read a great book about underground/blackmarket economy

called "Reefer Madness" by Eric Schlosser, the same guy who wrote Fast Food Nation. It deals with three aspects of underground economics: drugs, migrant workers, and porn. Sadly, the book doesn't go into enough depth on the subject, imo, but it fascinating nonetheless.

[Philosoraptor]

10. ..................

[BlooInBloo]

11. Too bad that's not how white folks think.

[Jonathan50]

12. Illegals have a profound effect on our economy..

If all of them were to go away tomorrow, it would be an economic earthquake.

Would the economy collapse?

Probably not.

My brother is a pretty liberal guy who happens to own his own contracting business.

He has an illegal working for him. Seven bucks an hour, under the table.

Bro sometimes bitches about illegal immigration until I point out his hypocrisy, at which point he sighs, rolls his eyes and agrees with me.

Did I mention that I love winning arguments?

[Jim Warren]

15. Curious

Is $7 an hour the prevailing wage for construction work where your brother is from?

[treestar]

13. Article by Barbara Ehrenreich sheds some light on it

comment | posted June 12, 2007 (web only)
What America Owes its 'Illegals'
Barbara Ehrenreich


What America Owes its 'Illegals'
by BARBARA EHRENREICH



Rush Limbaugh has been expecting liberals to start "whining" about the $5000 fine undocumented immigrants will have to pay to gain citizenship under the new immigration bill, but most liberals have been too busy chortling about the immigration-induced split in the GOP to make their own case against the bill. So let a mighty whine rise over the land: Undocumented workers shouldn't be fined; they should get a hefty bonus!

All right, they committed a "crime"--the international equivalent of breaking and entry. But breaking and entry is usually a prelude to a much worse crime, like robbery or rape. What have the immigrants been doing once they get into the US? Taking up time on the elliptical trainers in our health clubs? Getting ahead of us on the wait-lists for elite private nursery schools?

In case you don't know what immigrants do in this country, the Latinos have a word for it--trabajo. They've been mowing the lawns, cleaning the offices, hammering the nails and picking the tomatoes, not to mention all that dish-washing, diaper-changing, meat-packing and poultry-plucking.

The punitive rage directed at illegal immigrants grows out of a larger blindness to the manual labor that makes our lives possible: The touching belief, in the class occupied by Rush Limbaugh among many others, that offices clean themselves at night and salad greens spring straight from the soil onto one's plate.

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070625/ehrenreich

[blondeatlast]

14. Two major industries in my state would collapse into dust and hundreds of thousands of jobs

lost if they weren't here.

[Philosoraptor]

16. ................