Although some immigration opponents claim that immigrants take jobs from Americans, there is little evidence to support this. One study by Rob Paral of the Immigration Policy Center shows that employment in one-third of all job categories would have contracted during the 1990s in the absence of newly arrived immigrant workers, even if all U.S.-born workers with recent experience in those categories had been re-hired. According to Paral's analysis, "data from the 2000 census indicate that even if native workers could readily have moved to any part of the country in which jobs were available during the 1990s, and even if they had been willing to accept any job offered, there would not have been nearly enough unemployed native-born workers to fill all available jobs."
Without the more than 12 million immigrants who arrived in the 1990s -- including some 5 million illegal aliens -- the U.S. would have created fewer jobs, experienced slower economic growth and maintained a lower standard of living for everyone. Large segments of agriculture, the poultry and beef industry, certain manufacturers, and other employers faced with labor shortages or skyrocketing wages would have been forced out of business or moved their production abroad.
Even if it were possible to put native-born workers into all jobs now performed by immigrants, would it make sense? We spend billions of dollars each year to educate Americans. Do we really want Americans with 13 or more years of education picking lettuce, processing chickens or cleaning toilets -- and are we willing to pay them $18 or $20 an hour to do so? Doesn't it make more sense to match relatively low-skilled, foreign-born workers to jobs that require few skills?
If we changed our immigration laws to allow needed workers to immigrate legally, we'd largely solve our illegal alien problem; the Minutemen could go home permanently; and the Border Patrol could devote itself to keeping out drug dealers and terrorists. Too bad politicians aren't even willing to consider this option.