[kabar]

They both drive down wages, usually for two different groups of workers.

No doubt, but legal immigrants affect both unskilled and skilled labor. 20% of legal immigrants lack even a high school degree. Most of the legal immigrants are unskilled and are not better educated than the native born. 50% of illegal aliens lack even a high school degree. But the numbers of illegals are far less than the number of legal immigrants.

And in addition to the permanent legal immigrants, we have at any one time two million guest workers in this country working on temporary work visas. The Gang of 8 bill increases legal immigration to 33 million over the next decade (about 2 1/2 times the biggest decade of legal immigration in our history, i.e., the decade ending in 2010.) And the bill would more than double the number of guest workers to 1.4 million a year.

We have 21 million Americans underemployed or unemployed. It is insane to keep bringing in 1.1 million permanent legal immigrants a year. There is no correlation between our skills needs and immigration. Moreover, we are importing poverty with immigrants, legal and illegal. using our welfare system to a much higher degree than the native born. Just maintaining the status quo on immigration will destroy this country as we know it. Amnesty just hastens the process.

Over the past few decades American workers in general have watched their hard-fought gains in the workplace steadily eroded;

In real terms, American wages have been declining since 1969. Immigration has played a major role in the decline. If there were truly a shortage of labor, wages would be going up, not down.

[kearnyirish2]

“It is insane to keep bringing in 1.1 million permanent legal immigrants a year.”

Immoral (and criminal, in my mind), but not insane; they are trying to compete in a global economy with two Asian powers with over a billion people each. It didn’t help that Americans stopped breeding; those missing voters would have been key in preventing the sale of our country. We are dealing with two countries that top us in workers/consumers (by three times over), as well as every other country in the world.

[zeestephen]

Re: “Immigrant College Grads”

Advocates for mass immigration frequently point out that 36% of Legal Immigrants have a “college education.”

In contrast, just 31% of native born Americans have a 4 year degree.

That comparison is utterly bogus!

Most immigrants went to unaccredited Third World universities.

From there, most graduates went straight into a Third World government job.

Very few American employers will accept their Third World education and work credentials.

[staytrue]

“In real terms, American wages have been declining since 1969. Immigration has played a major role in the decline.”

Not really. What happened was WWII destroyed the rest of the developed world leaving the Americas mostly unscathed.

Argentina and the US had similar standards of living at the time.

Gradually, the advantage of not having a war fought inside your borders has been gradually wearing off.

This is the reason for the decline of US wages is the rest of the world is rebuiding and the US is declining naturally, the same as Argentina.