So? The jobs still belong to the employers. To "steal" a job is to suggest that jobs properly belong to the people whom the employers decide not to hire. "Stealing" jobs is clearly a nonsense idea.
Just as clearly, the matter of "illegality" has very little effect on the Americans who willingly flout those laws. There's much more involved on the demand side of the economic equation than the "no illegals" side of the argument is willing to address.
American employers can't offer such "opportunties" legally. The problem is that the USG is not enforcing its own laws.
The problem is that American workers cost too much relative to the competition; and American employers are looking to trim costs as much as possible. It is exactly the same problem that drives the out-sourcing of American manufacturing to lower-cost countries.
... For example, we would like to have the E-Verify program be made mandatory for any of the stimulus package projects....
Well and good -- but those are predicated on controlling the supply side of the problem, which is merely a response to the underlying economic issues that bring those folks northward.
Part of the problem is high overhead imposed by government, in the form of taxes, paperwork, and so on. Another, bigger, part of the problem is Americans' expectations: we demand more money and benefits as a condition of employment; and we have a welfare system that effectively places a floor on the wages Americans are willing to accept.
I think the terminology of the open borders types is "doing jobs Americans won't do." The jobs may belong to the employers, but they can't hire whomever they want, e.g., illegal aliens. The "stealing" refers to taking jobs away from those legally in this country.
The problem is that American workers cost too much relative to the competition; and American employers are looking to trim costs as much as possible. It is exactly the same problem that drives the out-sourcing of American manufacturing to lower-cost countries.
You are providing a phony justification. Wages are product of supply and demand. Americans and legal residents are not competing on a level playing field when illegal aliens apply for jobs. They are depressing wages.
Well and good -- but those are predicated on controlling the supply side of the problem, which is merely a response to the underlying economic issues that bring those folks northward.
We can only control what we can control. There are billions of people living in dire economic conditions and poverty around the globe. Most of them would love to come here. There is no shortage of applicants. And there are millions of Americans, many of them unskilled, who do not have jobs. The Bureau of Labor statistics for Februay 2009 show an unemployment rate of 8.1% with 12.5 million unemployed and the rate for blacks is 13.4% and Hispanics is 10.9%.
Part of the problem is high overhead imposed by government, in the form of taxes, paperwork, and so on. Another, bigger, part of the problem is Americans' expectations: we demand more money and benefits as a condition of employment; and we have a welfare system that effectively places a floor on the wages Americans are willing to accept.
People need more money to survive. American workers are not the problem. It all goes back to supply and demand. We are bringing in 1.2 million legal immigrants a year and 500,000 to 1 million enter illegally. And about a million more are brought in every year under non-immigrant work visas. Supply is driving down wages.
Our immigration policies will result in this country adding 135 million people in the next 40 years (75% due to immigration) just as those policies caused our population to increase by 100 million since 1970. Immigration, legal and illegal, has had and will continue to have a major and far-reaching impact across a broad spectrum of existential challenges that confront this nation, e.g., national security, the economy/global competitiveness, health care, taxes, energy independence, education, entitlement reform, law enforcement, social welfare programs, physical infrastructure, the environment, civil liberties, and a continued sense of national identity/shared sense of endeavor. In many ways immigration policy is the defining issue of our times with enormous implications for the future of this nation and the preservation of our patrimony. Yet, rarely will you hear immigration mentioned by our political and intellectual elites in connection with these challenges.