[William McKinley]

Meanwhile, many lower wage legal workers will hate it either way.

That is what I keep hearing pundits say, but I can't quite understand why. It is my understanding that part of this proposal is that to get a blue card, an alien must get the employer to affirm that it was unable to find an American to take the job. That sounds to me like lower wage legal Americans are going to get job choice opportunities.

[Torie]

No, legal workers won't pick strawberries or wash floors, and work in a sweatshop, or slash away at manzanita overgrowth on hillsides, etc., at 5 dollars an hour. Push that wage up to 10 dollars an hour, and the dam will burst, and illegals will really start to pour in, unless we empty out the jail cells of druggies, and put employers in them in their stead.

[Torie]

I should add, that unable to find an American worker means at what wage? I assume it means the minimum wage. OK, push the minimum wage up. Well, maybe. But there is again more pressure on the dam, as well as all the other costs of minimum wages that are above market. Tricky stuff.