Your editorial rightly points to work site enforcement as a vital element in the effort to stop illegal immigration. However, your inference that lettuce might cost $5 a head if we enforced our laws defeats your purpose. Before employing a fear tactic favored by open borders advocates, why not ask yourself how much of the cost of a head of lettuce goes to pay field workers? According to the University of California, is costs around 22 cents to grow and harvest a head of lettuce. Of that, about 15 cents goes for farm labor. If we doubled the wages of farm workers, the cost of a head of lettuce would increase by fifteen cents -- even less if labor saving machines are justified. For labor costs to force lettuce to $5 per head, farmers would have to pay field workers $280 an hour. At that rate, it would be the kind of work "every American would want to do."
The problem with illegal immigration is not that labor costs too much; it is that growers compete in a commodity market. If one grower can outdo another by using illegal labor, then his profits will increase. Inevitably, all growers must do the same thing to survive. As recent studies show, illegal immigration is driving down the wages of millions of Americans, while at the same time increasing their taxes. To stop this downward spiral we must control the borders and police the work site as well.
Answer: Toss out all illegal alien slaves, and don't be a tightwad when it come to paying American workers a living wage.