How can the prevailing wage be higher for jobs no one will accept?
I've lived in both union shop states and free states. The mentality of union members is incredibly socialistic.
In free states, a man's labor is his to sell for as much as he can get for it or as little as he is willing to take for it.
Experience, training, ability, age, skills, attitude, race, appearances, language, religion, personality, and, yes, also immigration status factor into the amount a man can get for his labor in a free state.
Illegals sell their labor for as much as they can just like everyone else. A skilled bodyman, mechanic, or bricklayer can command high wages regardless of his immigration status.
The only people working for minimum wages are the unskilled or untrained, whether they are illegal, legal or citizens.
Supply and demand involves the number of available bodies. The low wage jobs in American are under great wage pressure, in large part due to illegal immigration. The standard in living in that group would have slid over the last 20 years to unacceptable levels, absent government subsidies, including the earned income credit, which subsidizes low wage jobs, and further encourages illegal immigration. It is not a vituous circle. We need to have an honest dialogue about that.