I'm not an "economic-only" conservative -- far from it. That said, it's really dumb to ignore economics in this issue, since it is THE driving force behind illegal immigration.
The hilarity of threads like this is precisely the lengths to which folks will go to avoid acknowledging the economic factors that drive it -- what causes the illegals to head north, and what drives Americans to pay them.
The result is a focus on the rather ephemeral idea of "illegality." That's a sham position, which ultimately masks either ignorance of the economics, or some different motives. After all, "illegality" can be changed to "legality" in a single day, by appropriate legislation. And then, of course, we'd hear the chorus of howls about "amnesty" -- which simply demonstrates that "legality" was never the issue in the first place.
As other posters have tried to explain to you, not everything comes down to economics. Growing up in California, I saw first hand the extreme negative impact of illegal, and even in many cases, large amounts of legal immigration did to so many formerly middle/working class neighborhoods. I saw the strain it has put on the local infrastructure as well, and it radically changed the polotics of CA.
I know economics is the driving force behind illegal immigration, and that is why those who hire illegals should be punished in the same manner as those who sell illegal drugs. No mercy should be shown what so ever. I am more than willing to have farmers go out of business and have their land resort to arid wasteland than have this mass amount of 3rd world immigration continue.
For lack of a more refined term, "Ouch" that kicked michelle malkin and her followers in the you know where. :^)
You undermine your own argument. Yes, most of the cost of food is in the retail area, which proves there is NOT much cost in labor (It's in that 14-17% you noted)
And yes, ignoring economics, as you are, on this issue is REALLY DUMB.
What do you suppose the cost is for the infrastructure to accommodate up to 20 million people aka illegal aliens? New roads, schools, medical facilities, welfare/social services, houses, on and on.....
Now, for the cost of produce.
Without illegal aliens, the price of agricultural products and other goods and services will NOT soar. The definitive study on this subject is the University of Iowa's "How Much Is That Tomato?" The study concludes that 'since labor is such a small component of the end-price of agricultural products (which includes price to the growers, transportation costs, processing /storage costs, grocers' profit, etc.), using minimum wage workers instead of illegal aliens would increase prices of agricultural products by approximately 3 percent in the summer and 4 percent in the winter ... hardly the making of $10 heads of lettuce, $25 hamburgers, $1,000 per night Days Inn hotel rooms like the pro-illegal alien lobby claims.
http://www.theamericanresistance.com/articles/art2004jan04.html
_____
"If you look at strawberries, they're picked right into the little plastic containers," said Martin. "The farmers only get about 18 cents on the dollar for strawberries. If (the consumer) spends $1 on a pint of strawberries, the farmer's getting 18 cents. He gives about one-third of that to farmworkers, so they make 6 cents." So even if the labor cost were to double, that would still only be a 6 cent increase per pint.
Martin's estimate is that if the immigration influx -- currently a net of about 500,000 people per year -- were cut by 40 percent, the average American family would wind up spending about 2.5 percent more on fresh fruits and vegetables.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/05/21/MNGFQIVN991.DTL&type=politics Also: JOBS AMERICAN CITIZENS WON'T DO? According the the Pew Hispanic center, and data from 2005 census reports, the largest percentage of those jobs are done by US CITIZENS.
http://pewhispanic.org/reports/report.php?ReportID=61
About 7.2 million unauthorized migrants were employed in March 2005, accounting for about 4.9% of the civilian labor force. They made up a large share of all workers in a few more detailed occupational categories, including 24% of all workers employed in farming occupations, 17% in cleaning, 14% in construction and 12% in food preparation.