But let's say I'm wrong and the only way to get American's back into the fields and the construction industry is to raise wages (to something livable). Food and housing would cost a small percentage more. But the money would stay in the US, in our economy, it would be taxed, fewer American's would be on public assistance, and the massive amounts we spend on hand outs would end. It would be worth every penny and more in the long run.
It won't work if another 10 million arrive every year, above and beyond what we now have in the country.
Over half of Mexico's population says they'd move to the U.S. if the could, that they "want to". Start a Guest Worker program, and those fifty million or so will show up. All it took to vastly expand the existing illegal alien population in the U.S. at the start of Bush's first term was the mere mention of the word, "amnesty."