Foreign competition depresses wages even more.
I think that for most people who hire illegals, if it's not illegals, it's offshore manufacturing. In the case of the householders hiring illegals, if it's not illegals, it's nobody - they would have to do the jobs themselves since an American workforce is too expensive.
That's why Bush proposes the guest worker program, and why Bush isn't throwing everyone out. It would be horribly disruptive to existing relationships here if illegals were thrown out wholesale.
D
And why is that? Because of excess regulation and taxation on employers. People who've never run a small business have absolutely no idea how expensive manpower can be. The check my employees receive is NOT the sum total of what they actually cost me.