"The public subsidizes these wages through indigent health care and public school load, along with increased crime rates."
This is the case for any group of low skilled, low paid workers whether they are legal or not. Assuming Americans took the jobs now being done by illegals, these costs would still be there.
The article states that 24% of ag. jobs are filled by illegals. And you imply that if the illegals vanished, then employers would be forced to raise wages to attract Americans to do the work. Perhaps you're right. But we've all heard the stories about jobs in urban areas disappearing because low skilled unemployed were unwilling to work for the wages that employers were capable of paying. We once had theater ushers, sweepers, bag boys, etc. No more.
False reasoning. The implication is that Americans would be paid more, and that pay would come in place of some other subsidy that was in place-unemployment, welfare, etc. We already have those costs for Americans.
Your point, BTW, is an excellent argument for limiting low skill immigrants.
The article states that 24% of ag. jobs are filled by illegals. And you imply that if the illegals vanished, then employers would be forced to raise wages to attract Americans to do the work. Perhaps you're right. But we've all heard the stories about jobs in urban areas disappearing because low skilled unemployed were unwilling to work for the wages that employers were capable of paying. We once had theater ushers, sweepers, bag boys, etc. No more.
That's an excellent example of what I mean. Wages for some jobs would rise, if the jobs provided economic value. We still have bag boys because women, who do the majority of shopping, will shop where car service is available. It's also cheaper to pay a bag boy to bag groceries than a union checker.
Theater ushers are now little more than bouncers. The entire movie industry has changed. 10 screen theaters can now use one projectionist and one concession stand. Movie theaters are much less labor intensive than they used to be.
By sweepers, I assume you mean street sweepers. They have machines that do that now. I suspect those were make work positions during the depression anyway.
Re agriculture...there was recently a surplus of immigrant labor in California fields. Growers have changed their planting and harvesting practices, combined that with some genetic engineering, and have largely mechanized raisin production. Costs, as with any other price, send a signal. If your costs are too high, you find a different way to do things or you die.
Illegal immigrants are "low cost" means of production; by that I mean that many of the costs are offloaded onto the public. Chinese workers are a still lower cost means of production.
By far, however, the lowest cost producer is a machine.