The Competition for Low-Wage Jobs

(Photo: Lee Celano for The New York Times) In this economy, immigrant day laborers may find their quest for work more difficult.

A series that examines the impact of immigration on American institutions.

In a continuing series on immigration, Room for Debate this week moves on to the issue of how the economic crisis affects immigrants — both legal and illegal. An article that will appear over the weekend will explore this topic.

We’ve asked several experts how the recession might alter competition for lower-wage jobs between workers born in the United States, who previously shunned these jobs, and immigrants who have been willing to take them. If competition for these jobs increases, what does it mean for immigrants who don’t have a social safety net to rely on?

Two Very Different Groups Seeking Work

Gordon Hanson

Gordon Hanson, a professor of economics and the director of the Center on Pacific Economies at the University of California, San Diego, is the co-editor of the forthcoming book “Skilled Immigration Today: Problems, Prospects and Policies.”

During the last two decades, immigrants have become a vital part of the low-skilled labor force in the United States. As of 2007, the foreign-born accounted for 48 percent of the supply of workers with less than a high school education.

Surprising as it might seem, the economic crisis is unlikely to change the situation by very much. Among the low-skilled, immigrants are much more likely than natives to be employed. At the height of the recent economic boom, the number of hours worked by the typical low-skilled immigrant was 56 percent greater than for the typical low-skilled native. This is in part because the two populations are very different.

Most low-skilled immigrants are able-bodied individuals who have come to the United States to improve their lives. While they might take menial jobs in our country, their skills would place them solidly in the middle of the pack back home. Many low-skilled natives, on the other hand, are individuals who are from unstable homes or grew in poor neighborhoods, or they simply do not have what it takes to succeed in a technologically sophisticated society. Why would individuals who did not take jobs when labor demand was strong two or three years ago be more likely to work when new jobs are scarce today?

Immigrants outcompete low-skilled natives for jobs because they are more motivated or because they are more productive.

Few of the low-skilled had significant wealth, making the collapse of housing and stock prices unimportant for their choices over whether and how much to work. Another factor that keeps immigrant participation in the labor force strong relative to natives is the absence of a social safety net for many of the foreign-born. Non-citizens, whether legal or illegal, are much less likely than natives to be eligible for government assistance, forcing them to depend on their own hard work to provide for their families. Additionally, nearly a tenth of low-skilled native men are unable to work because they are in prison. The crisis won’t change their role in the United States economy.

Immigrants outcompete low-skilled natives for jobs because they are more motivated or because they are more productive. While the current depressed state of the United States economy is unlikely to attract many new immigrants to our shores, those who are already here will continue to be a mainstay in low-end employment.

Wages Will Go Even Lower

Steven Camarota


The first thing to note about workers in low-wage jobs that require relatively little education is that the overwhelming majority are born in the United States. For example, the 2007 American Community Survey by the Census Bureau showed that 65 percent of meatpackers, 68 percent of construction laborers, 73 percent of dishwashers and 74 percent of janitors were U.S.-born. Of course, the immigrant share (legal and illegal) of any occupation varies enormously from city to city. But it’s clear from this data that Americans are willing to do this work.

According to the January Current Population Survey, which measures unemployment, there are now 24 million adult native-born Americans (18 to 64 years of age) who have no education beyond high school who are either unemployed or not in the labor force, which means they are not even looking for work.

Given the severity of this economic downturn, the long-term decrease in wages and employment for the least educated will likely accelerate.

During the last few decades the share of these less-educated Americans who are working has been declining and their wages, adjusted for inflation, have been falling. At the same time, the number of immigrants in the low-wage labor market has grown drastically. While most economists think immigration has caused some of this deterioration in wages, there is debate about how much. But even before the recession, it was almost impossible to find any evidence of a labor shortage at the bottom of the economy. If there was, wages and employment rates should all be rising, the exact opposite of what’s been happening for a long time.

Given the severity of this economic downturn, the long-term decrease in wages and employment for the least educated will likely accelerate. Assuming the United States does not change its immigration policy during the recession, competition between native-born Americans and new immigrants will almost certainly intensify for low-wage jobs.

One million new legal immigrants are expected to settle in the country permanently this year. Most will try to find work and a very large share will join the low-wage labor market. Moreover, several hundred thousand unskilled foreign workers will be admitted on a temporary basis under the H2B visa program, which is for unskilled non-agricultural workers in seasonal jobs like landscaping and hospitality. In fact, Senator Barbara Mikulski, a Democrat from Maryland, recently introduced legislation that could triple the size of that visa program above its current cap. As for illegal immigration, the evidence indicates it has fallen, but there are still an estimated six million to seven million illegal immigrant workers in the country, who are heavily concentrated in low-wage jobs.

The January Current Population Survey shows that the unemployment rate for less-educated immigrants is still somewhat better than for less-educated native-born Americans. But it is rising fast for immigrants and natives alike. As the employment picture deteriorates, we can expect more immigrants and native-born Americans to turn to the social safety net. The survey collected in 2007, before the recession, showed that 33 percent of immigrant-headed households had at least one person using a welfare program, mostly food assistance and Medicaid. This compares to 19 percent of households headed by native-born Americans. Welfare use can be expected to increase significantly for both groups.

Moving to Where the Jobs Are

Michael Fix

Michael Fix, a lawyer, is the senior vice president and director of studies at the Migration Policy Institute, nonprofit organization that provides analysis, development and evaluation of migration and refugee policies.

It stands to reason to think that in a period in which we have seen the loss of 4.4 million jobs that competition between immigrants and native-born workers would heat up in the low-wage sectors that immigrants have dominated. Of course a lot depends on the length and depth of the crisis, but my sense is that, at least in the short term, the effects may be less acutely felt than many might expect. Here’s why.

Immigrants have always been more likely to move in search of a job than natives and they have proved to be more adaptable in moving across sectors of the economy (for example, from construction to agriculture). Immigrants — especially illegal immigrants — are working in jobs and sectors of the economy that natives have gradually left, may be reluctant to re-enter and to which they may have limited access because the internal networks that control information about the availability of new jobs in these sectors now operate largely within immigrant communities.

Patterns of job competition will likely shift slowly where the work is seasonal, where workplaces are remote and where there is limited mobility.

These jobs are sectors in which there are few educational and literacy requirements, where wages are low and working conditions poor. My guess is that even in a recession, patterns of job competition will likely shift slowly where the work is seasonal, dangerous and hard; where workplaces are remote (like meat-packing); and where there is limited mobility.

But if the recession is long and deep all bets are off. We could see native-born workers pulling up roots and settling for wages and working conditions that were previously unacceptable. If so, competition will only increase the hardship already being felt by immigrant workers. After all, they have been on the leading edge of the crisis’ impacts: They have been heavily concentrated in construction, low value-added manufacturing and in the hospitality industries. Many — including recently arrived legal immigrants — are cut off from most if not all safety-net services.

What’s more, because this recession is global, the incentives for immigrants to return to their home country are few.

These troubling trends point to two policy options. One is to create more opportunities for circular migration so workers have a greater incentive to return to their homes in poor economic times, knowing they can re-enter. Another that we have advocated here at the Migration Policy Institute would be to more closely synchronize the United States immigration system to the economy by creating an independent federal agency that adjusts employment admissions in ways that take national and regional economic trends into account.

The Plight of Day Laborers

Pablo Alvarado


The economic downturn in the United States economy affects all aspects of the labor market. But day laborers and other low-wage workers are particularly affected by the recession.

According to the National Day Laborer Survey, 49 percent of the people who employ day laborers are private homeowners and 43 percent are contractors. The jobs that these low-wage workers perform include landscaping and home-remodeling projects. In the current recession, set off by the mortgage crisis, homeowners who have lost, or are about to lose, their homes and residential building contractors no longer hire day laborers as much as they used to.

Indeed, in times of uncertainty, homeowners are less likely to spend money on their houses. What’s more, some long-term residential construction workers who have recently found themselves without jobs are moving into the market that day laborers once occupied. Still, even with the added competition, the opportunities and prospects for a better life are more achievable in the United States than in the home country of these immigrant workers.

I regularly visit dozens of day laborer sites throughout the country. While I have yet to see a notable increase in the number of day laborers, it’s clear that the majority of them are immigrants and the few recently displaced workers joining them are mostly low-wage immigrant workers.

We cannot afford to further marginalize immigrant workers. Employers already take advantage of day laborers and they will only continue to do so in hard times by disregarding health and safety rules, curtailing organizing efforts and failing to pay for services rendered.

Sadly, these abuses are on the rise everywhere in America. But now more than ever, vulnerable low-wage workers need stronger protections and equal access to legal remedies in order to prevent their further impoverishment. Leveling the playing field will maintain and improve standards for all workers even in times of economic decline. In this sense, immigration reform with a path toward citizenship would be a win-win situation for everyone.

Migrants and day laborers, like most Americans, are hard-working entrepreneurs who deserve a shot at the American Dream. They are an integral part of the United States economy that we must cherish and protect.

On Farms, Fewer Jobs

Philip Martin


About 2.5 million workers are employed for wages on United States farms at some point during a typical year; three-fourths are immigrants. Most of the immigrants were born in Mexico, most have an elementary school education and most remain farm workers for less than a decade.

Mexican-born farm workers who have begun to climb the American job ladder may be pushed back into the fields by rising unemployment.

Will 10 percent unemployment lead workers born in the United States into farm jobs? Perhaps a few, but the more likely outcome is that Mexican-born farm workers who have begun to climb the American job ladder by finding nonfarm, construction, food processing and service jobs will be pushed back into the fields by rising unemployment. Many will resist downward mobility, but most came to the United States for upward mobility and will be reluctant to return to countries that are also suffering from recession.

Competition for work in the fields may intensify in peculiar ways. Traditionally, farmers hired the workers they employed directly, and often provided hired hands with housing on the farm. Today, more than half of the workers brought to large fruit, vegetable and horticultural specialty farms that produce flowers and foliage are supplied by labor contractors with deep roots in immigrant communities in the United States and abroad. It may be hard for jobless ex-farm workers to re-establish links with contractors, some of whom may be reluctant to rehire workers with nonfarm experience.

The big question is what happens when growth resumes and farm workers again leave the fields for nonfarm jobs. Flexibility in agriculture and many other low-wage labor markets is on the demand side of the labor market, not the supply side, meaning that rising wages signal employers to get work done with fewer workers.

Substituting capital for labor is how the United States was able to reduce the share of the work force employed in agriculture from over 90 percent in 1790 to less than 2 percent today. If wages are permitted to rise as farm workers leave the fields when growth resumes, farmers will adapt and innovate as they have in the past, promising more productive agriculture and a smaller magnet for workers from abroad.

Expect More Workplace Abuses

Annette Bernhardt

Annette Bernhardt, the policy co-director of the National Employment Law Project, is co-editor of “The Gloves-Off Economy: Workplace Standards at the Bottom of America’s Labor Market.”

Immigrant workers in the low-wage labor market are experiencing a lot of what workers born in the United States are experiencing: higher unemployment, loss of hours, unpredictability of pay and schedules, increased work loads. And we will undoubtedly see heightened competition for jobs — that always happens when unemployment goes up as workers become more willing to consider lower-level jobs.


Violations of minimum-wage and overtime laws are on the rise as employers focus on cutting costs.

But what we should really be concerned about is that all low-wage workers are vulnerable to abuse in the current recession. Violations of minimum-wage and overtime laws are on the rise as employers focus on cutting costs and as workers have fewer options. For example, employers are asking workers to forgo overtime pay, or take a pay cut to below the minimum wage while business is slow. This trend was already building in low-wage industries before the recession hit. But it’s only getting worse.

Public policy needs to intervene and re-establish workplace protections that were put into place during the last century: the minimum wage, overtime pay, health and safety on the job, the right to organize. We need to reinvigorate the United States Department of Labor so that it actually does its job and enforces the protections that many of us take for granted, but that growing numbers of workers are left without. It also means making those protections stronger.

Finally, we need to push forward on comprehensive immigration reform, with an unerring focus on ensuring that immigrant workers have equal status in the workplace. Any other solution that creates a second class of workers only opens the door to exploitative business practices, which inevitably spill over to hurt us all.

Comments are no longer being accepted.

As an American worker this statement by the editors of the New York Times galls me.


American workers don’t shun any work. We are the ones who clean you up in the hospital and carry out your trash. The only thing we shun are wages too low to support our families. Is there a job lower than sucking out the porta potties? No, but American workers do it because you need a drivers license, so the wage is higher. Pay us instead of importing labor.

Mexican workers suffered the most during the early stages of the downturn in the US because they were heavily employed in the construction industries which were hit hard in the beginning.

They were not measured as part of the unemployed in the US and so we were slower to recognize the extent of the downturn than we should have been, and we did not move swiftly enough to correct the situation.

Now, with much of the focus on infrastructure, many of the new jobs which will be created as part of the stimulus package will be in construction. We may be disappointed now that our unemployment rates do not fall as quickly as we might expect since many of these jobs may again be taken by Mexicans.

All legitimate jobs must be available to all US citizens FIRST before any consideration of them being available to non-US citizens. This has been the successful practice of the US for decades. Many other countries use this policy too.
Have you forgotten Operation Wetback from the Truman Administration? This was when a great many hispanic illegal aliens were shipped back home (at US taxpayer expense) to provide for jobs for US soldiers returning from war.
Not a bad policy, eh?

As per Prof. Hanson article, he hit the nail in the head. Imigrants have a higher desire for progress and self respect that natives take for granted. We come to this “shore” with the PLAN to become rich if not here then in our country of origin. The desire for success is natural to “imigrants” we do not accept the word NO as answer.
Given this confirmed facts legalize imigrants. As per Prof. Hanson natives are not deserving of the precious rights the USA gives them and imigrants are.


The one thing that I remember from my business law class is that if you go to a court seeking equity, you should go with clean hands. Illegal-alien day laborers do not have “clean hands”. Labor laws allowing illegal aliens to file suits are intended to protect AMERICAN workers from the diminution of wages and working conditions. But should we have laws specifically designed to protect people who are not only here illegally, but working illegally? No way.

When discussing a light bulb, it is either on or off!
When discussing Immigration it is either Legal or Illegal.

Let’s play this game on a level field, please.

It’s simple math game, but we Americans could not figure it out due to our poor education in sciences. Illegal immigrants work hard for low pay and do whatever Americans do not want to do. They help the growth of local economy. Yes, those who can keep their jobs are doing something positive. However, how many illegal immigrants are truly contributing to our society without taking advantage of our social welfare system? They brought their kids to our public schools, their elderly to our hospitals, their troubling siblings and children to our jails, and they delivered some many babies they can afford raising. The U.S. employers who hire illegal immigrants may benefits from their cheap labor, but our society as a whole has to take the burden to take the whole package. Why Americans do not want to do some jobs? Our kids should be sent to work in their spare time instead of letting them loose to purpose their drug or sex habits.

Almost all of us here, are descendants of immigrants who came or were brought here as cheap laborers. Some as slaves, indentured servants,mercenaries, or immigrants lured by false advertising or labor providers to 19th and 20th century industrialists.
So immigration has always been used by the powerful to provide cheap labor. But in times such as these immigration will evaporate as the need evaporates, so we need do nothing .
But we neede to respect those who are here and provide them the same oppertunities we always have, including educating thier children, who are now or will be shortly Americans.

Meantime, with millions of Americans without jobs no Liberal Democrat will address the 500 pound gorilla in the room, millions of invading Illegal Aliens taking millions of jobs that should be American jobs and 100,s billions of dollars in social services that should be for American citizens!


Their negative impact extends to every area from Sub-par loans, Underground economy, Lower standard of living, Crime, Bankrupted hospitals, Failing schools, Property Taxes, Insurance costs, Environment, Culture, Welfare costs, Welfare fraud, SS fraud, Voter fraud, Disrespect for laws, our Constitution against invasion and even Balance of payments occurring from oil and other imports to support the 20 to 30 million illegal aliens in this country!

One has to only look at Calif. which is basically mostly an Spanish speaking, Bankrupt state that cannot afford to provide Welfare, Schooling, Medical, Prison cells etc. for millions of MS-13 Gang bangers, Drug dealers, Rapist and other assorted Criminals and uneducated, fast breeding, third world rejects from Mexico!


Failure to secure our borders and reward the Invading horde for their invasion and their relatives in an never ending chain with American Citizenship is nothing less than committing National Suicide & will assure our future is an over populated Spanish speaking third world Nation that is an Cesspool of Corruption, Crime, Poverty and Misery modeled on Mexico!

We already have enough US citizens in poverty without adding the population of Mexico and Latino American. Someone on here has spoke of hypocrisy and racist feeling toward Mexicans. What I find is hypocrisy is thinking it is OK for Mexicans to ignore our Immigration laws but not others. If we are to have no Borders or an Immigration policy then there are 100,s of millions and probably billions in China, India, Africa and many other Nations around the world that would like the same rights.

Immigration policies are crazed. America allows these workers to stay, and this means that in 2,100 Americans will be mostly Hispanic and Chinese. The original mix will have been destroyed and my children will probably immigrate to a different nation and reject this one.

I live in Dodge City, Kansas. I moved here a year ago because I lost everything in the May 4th tornado that hit Greensburg in 2007. First, it took me 3 months just to find an apt to rent. I lost one apt, shown to me by a Hispanic woman, who told me I could have the apt, but after I gave her the card from the Recovery Foundation stating they would pay the deposit and 3 months rent, upfront, to help me relocate, the next day I showed up to get the key and she informed me, and not too nicely, that she had rented the apt to “someone with cash in hand.” Around here it is a well known fact that Mexicans carry large amounts of cash, so we knew what had transpired. This sent me into a depression.
Finally I found an apt. Then for 6 months I sent out resumes, filled out apps, and went to places in person. Nothing, except a foreigner offered me a job for $6 an hour, even less than minimum wage–I have seen that he mostly hires Mexicans. Not hard to figure that one out. The main thing I have noticed around here is that a lot of the jobs say bi-lingual required or more recently, preferred. What in the world is up with that?
You people keep talking about lowend jobs that noone else will take. Poppycock! First of all, if any of you went to some of these towns which have been taken over by Mexicans, and now Guatemalans and Salvadorans, you could see for yourself that these people, legal and illegal, get ALL the jobs, government, charity, retail, office, health, education, on and on.
Dodge City has turned into a little Mexican town, the downtown is destroyed, the historical tourism faction has to keep asking for bailouts to keep their doors open, tourists no longer want to come here because what they see is a dirty town full of Mexican shops where the Mexicans shop and put money back into their own pockets.
The town’s answer to all of this is nothing–they turn their heads and refuse to admit that ten years ago this town was booming with a small minority of Mexicans–the town is run by cattle industries and two huge beef plants.
Which brings me to another point–these same people who get these so called crappy jobs have the best insurance and benefits I have ever seen. Even when I did work for the government years ago we never got close to that in benefits. Everywhere you look you see Hispanics driving Escalades and expensive new vehicles. And yet, the schools have had to identify children whose parents do not feed them on the weekend so they put together food bags for them to put in their backpacks so they have something to eat. Who pays for this food and if the parents are spending their money on huge vehicle payments instead of food why isn’t something done about it?
Teachers are forced to teach Hispanic kids, maybe there is one Caucasion or two in the whole class! The school district is funded by the Migrant Program and must adhere to their policies. The school lunches are focused on foods eaten by Mexicans. Mexicans fly the Mexican flag on their porches and drive around in vehicles we cannot afford with Mexican flags and symbols. Everywhere you go from paying a bill to seeing a doctor you are surrounded by people speaking Spanish and you begin to feel like you are an intruder in your own hometown county.
I have worked with nothing but Mexicans since school started, or so it seems, I cannot say the kids aren’t sweet, I cannot say the parents aren’t nice, I cannot say the adults I work with aren’t nice, but I can say that this is the most ridiculous and unfair situation I have ever seen in my adult life. You do not allow people from other countries to come in and take over whole towns in the United States! You people who study figures and charts are so out of touch with reality. My son lives in Denver and he too is surrounded by Hispanics who can get jobs while he struggles. He had a landscaping job, which he loved, at first, until his boss started bringing in these Mexican day laborers who not only would not do their work, but went around grabbing their private parts and kept trying to goad him into a fight, since he was the on site supervisor. He has a degree in Business Management. He “managed” to get the heck out of there and found a job at a nice restaurant/bar in a highend neighborhood which is still doing good, but he has to put up with a Mexican cook who breaks health rules and goes around threatening people like a little emperor.
And I forgot an important point–this town (Dodge) is full of gangs and shootings and stabbings and driveby shootings and drugs. The County is building a new jail to accomodate the large prison population. The paper is full of immigrants who’ve been arrested for identity theft and violations and violence. The schools have gang members who have to be watched like a hawk. It is nervewracking.
This is nuts! I don’t normally respond to things like this, but I just couldn’t sit here any longer and be silent.

I would like immigrants to recognised where the resources come from when they access free medical care, food subsidies, lodging etc as they suffer, as well as many citizens, during the severe economic environment.

The basis of my statement lies in the fundamental behavior of immigrants sending large portions of their earnings back to there home countries (remittances). Money suckout of their respective communities in which they live. As a result, small business are not able to hire, local governments don’t get enough tax revenues when compare to citizenry to pay for social services etc.

In conclusion, we have to spend in our community in order for it to grow or be there when you need it the most. Remittances create lazy governments i.e. these countries are subsidies by remittances, the citizens that receive remittances don’t pressure their governments to produce jobs etc.

hopefully all the illegals will be forced out but I doubt it.
Bosses would rather be crooked and break the law if it saves them a dime.

You say you’ve “asked several experts how the recession might alter competition for lower-wage jobs…” You mean you’ve asked amnesty proponents and east coast white collar academicians who have no idea what happens in the real workplace –like Labor Secretary Robert Reich, who in making an assessment of the “Stimulus Bill” on CSPAN, said that we must exclude “white male construction workers”, not knowing, himself, that illegals rooted out the “white males” in most states years ago.

Of course, they’re right about some things. The illegal will push wages lower, because the know how to work the system — working under the table and paying no taxes, and taking housing support, free healthcare, food stamps, and, so on … to subsidize his “low-wage” lifestyle, while the the “native” (that’s funny) is left on the streets.

Don’t you understand that it’s often the legal immigrant or his/her children that are hurt first and most? Enough of your sophistry!

Employers in every segment and sector love the “globalization” of the workforce, as it opened their eyes to how little people in third world countries are willing to accept in compensation. Americans and Europeans will slowly see benefits diluted, wages scaled back and more foreign workers on their native soil or on ships, moored just beyond the constraints of the maritime laws. Such ships house workers for more than a year at a time, even providing conjugal visits from spouses several times a year. The placeholders are already here and the process will continue, along with the downward spiral of corporate-based wages. Mothers, tell your children, go into business for themselves, catering to the greedy, idle rich – don’t be slaves to the clock for the future generations of CEO’s and their attorneys.

If you have broken federal and/ or state law and are in the USA illegally than you should either go home voluntarily or be deported. If you have worked here in the USA using a stolen Social Security number, you should be arrested and be deported. Go back to your country of origin. These laws are already in place in the USA, just enforce them. No, life is not fair, it is just life and you make the best of what you can without breaking laws in any country.
San Diego, Rich Monk

This illegal immigration is a cancer that is devouring the culture that has served this country so well. The politicians, who pick and choose which laws to follow, love the illegal aliens because the politician can manipulate these people. Big business, U. S. Chamber of Commerce and Mayor Bloomberg, love the illegal alien because they provide cheaper labor.

If the politicians or big business(Gates, Bloomberg, & etc.) had any concern for the USA, or its citizens, they would devise programs and projects to enhance the employment skills of the unemployed US citizens that are ubiquitous thru out this country. These people are on the road to the jail house instead of employment. Yet, Gates takes millions to Africa to showboat what a great person he is. He should start with those within a few miles of his house.

Interesting diverse comments from the experts. I would just like to add few more points. In my opinion, there are 3 different categories, Legal immigrant works, illegal and native. While illegal immigration needs to be strictly controlled because that is a also a big catalyst in the competition for low wages. Illegal immigrants will just about do anything at any wage level. If they make 20$ a day, its still more than what they would ever make back home.
Another important aspect of immigrants (legal or illegal) is that there is hardly ever any incentive to return. You have to take in account the amount of effort and struggle that they undertake to cross the border again legally or illegally. Who would be willing to put himself to the mercy of fate once again?
As for most part, I feel that the challenges to find a job & sustain it are somewhat similar for native & legal immigrants. As Pablo mentioned, the majority of the employers for day workers are home owners & contractors. While the house marketing is taking a big hit, everybody related to that is seeing the impact.
Some benefit that immigrants have over natives are
1) Immigrants have network & friends in the low wage jobs
2) Employers prefer immigrants because the general perception is that they work harder, longer and complain less.
3) Immigrants are more reliable with better experience in relative market.

With all these factors in mind, the most imprtant factor in all this dicussion is economics. It should not surprise anyone how a survival instinct in man can kick in and then anything is possible. If this downward trend continues as it seems it will, employers will have to cut wages and hire less workers to sustain their business, and native americans may also work harder and may be even better quality job to be able to bring food to the table. Lets hope the recession is not very long and does not last too long.

Immigrants coming here to do jobs Americans will not do is understandable but for the Government to allow them to take good jobs that Americans will do, is abhorrent to any sane person in this bad employment times. We have no choice but to apply the everify program to any and all jobs, especially the ones paid for by the American taxpayer.

I am tired of employers of illegal aliens getting off with nothing more than a slap on the wrist!

Bars and restaurants face stiff penalties for serving alcohol to minors with fake ids, but if those same businesses hire illegal workers they often are given little more than a slap on the wrist. There are approximately 7 million illegal workers in our country. Those 7 million jobs are unavailable to our least educated workers – our most vulnerable people. The influx of cheap illegal labor also depresses the wages of those who do have jobs. Even with the recent increase in worksite raids, sanctions against employers are pathetically low.

Employers who hire illegal workers are not just providing American jobs to people who have no legal right to them, they are also providing incentives for more people to violate our immigration laws. It seems easy to demonize illegal workers, but we should remember that it is the people who employ them who are perpetuating our current illegal immigration crisis.

Voters can help by making E-Verify mandatory for all businesses. E-Verify is the on-line federal program that has been available to businesses for over 12 years. E-Verify enables businesses to quickly verify the work eligibility of newly hired employees. Combined with a simple companion program to weed out identity theft, E-Verify would protect law-abiding businesses from competitors who hire illegal workers and would open up new job opportunities for the 8 million Americans who are looking but can’t find a job

Illegal immigrant bashing isn’t the way to go. For the information of post #2, illegals hardly “know how to work the system”; as a matter of fact, some (if not all) of them don’t even speak English! It is ignorance of what qualifications one must have to obtain social services such as housing support, healthcare, foods stamps, etc. coupled with frustrated spite (since the person who made the post probably feels powerless against “the system”) that is prompting such comments.

A better way to go would be to question why the employers are hiring illegal immigrants in the first place.

The problem with the argument in which it is stated illegal aliens will do work that American citizens will not do is that the premise is flawed.

It assumes that Americans who do not take low paying jobs come from dysfunctional families. Good try at fooling the public to move a social agenda.

American Citizens have always been willing to take on low paying jobs. The low pay must bring in enough money to pay for basic life needs: transportation, food, and a roof over our heads. Americans can’t compete with illegal’s living 12 plus people in a house. Just give us a level playing field.

Please listen, we don’t want to live packed 12 or more to a house and wait on street corners for a job and transportation to it. It’s immoral to support this practice and denigrates jobs for all legal American workers.

This stealing of the American workers jobs and dumbing down our skill level is happening all over America in the hotel industry, slaughter houses, farms and home construction. It’s really time to stop killing the entry level jobs in America. These jobs rightly belong to American workers. The jobs teach skills and permit upward mobility.

It is not possible for Americans to make a basic livable wage in an environment where illegals are permitted to come into our country without papers and take low paying jobs from Americans. It forces salaries lower and makes it impossible for able bodied Americans to gain skills and a foothold in the job market.

It’s sad that some political people to further there immigration agenda will sacrifice America’s well being. They make excuses for all this illegal immigration. People who object to it are and those who want jobs are called lazy, unskilled, not motivated, and racist and so on.

The social activist will say whatever it takes to move their agenda and the hell with the American people. Oh, we should not worry; all of us can get a college education. Pathetic!

I agree with poster #2: the illegals know how to manipulate the system. They have their “anchor babies” and then rush to sign up for every freebie possible: food stamps, welfare (ostensibly for the baby, but the whole family benefits), housing support, “free” healthcare (by abandoning the bills), etc.

The bleeding heart liberals who cry over the poor illegal aliens “living in the shadows” need to remove the blindfolds and take a real look at just how easily these people game our system. Instead of talking about some version of amnesty for illegals (no matter what euphemism is used), we should be trying to find ways to “encourage” them to go home. If we need field workers, let’s establish a form of work visa that does not lead to citizenship or allow the importation of the workers’ families for the taxpayer to support.

We are being bled dry while our nation is turning into a Third World nation, thanks to all of the uneducated, unskilled laborers pouring across our porous borders. It needs to stop!

Did Robert Reich say what Michael Forrest is alleging or is that pure slander? Did Reich really say that “white male” construction workers should be excluded? This sounds like typical GOP lying to me. I have been wondering if the stimulus bill included any provisions to favor native workers, US citizens, over the immigrants the GOP and multinational corporations have lured here to drive down wages, but I haven’t heard anyone speak candidly or truthfully about this. Someone has got to stand up for the American worker. George W. Bush sold us down the river to appease his corporate supporters and his buddies like Vicente Fox, and now the whole world is suffering, Mexico is a basket case, and American workers at the bottom of the ladder are worse off than they were when Clinton left office. Something has got to give. Can the New York Times, which mainly cares about elites and socialites, interview some people at the bottom of the economic ladder to find out how they’re coping and dealing with the outcome of this scheme to import foreigners in all industries, including the financial industries, and drive down US citizens’ wages?