“It is fallacious to assume our unemployment problem is caused by too many workers, or can be alleviated by reducing opportunities for those who want to work.”
So...if illegals weren’t doing construction, citizens also would not?
If there are 20 jobs, and you have 25 citizens who want work, and 2 of the 20 jobs are being held by non-citizens, how does that help the 7 unemployed citizens?
Correct, they'd collect benefits, engage in the drug trade (or other black market/criminal activities), and other activities (ever offer a bum a chance to work instead of take a handout?) that they prefer to hard work like construction.
If there are 20 jobs, and you have 25 citizens who want work, and 2 of the 20 jobs are being held by non-citizens, how does that help the 7 unemployed citizens?
The number of jobs is not fixed, it is relative to the wages offered and the opportunity costs facing those available for employment. We have too high of a minimum wage and too large an entitlement system to reduce joblessness. Those legal problems create unemployment, not the number of people that exists at any one time.