Anti-Immigration.... Don't we have more important things to worry about?

I'm sure most of us have been made aware of the recent debate over new anti-immigration legislation going through congress. The theory goes that illegal immigrants are depriving Americans from work within our own boarders. These Americans claim they are deprived from work because illegal immigrants are willing to work at or below minimum wage, while Americans aren’t.

Well….why not? If Americans workers are unwilling to work at what is considered to be current market prices, SHOULDN’T they be out of work? Keep in mind, not all illegal immigrants are working at below minimum wage levels. Some of them happily obey the labor laws concerning their employment, well, most of them, INCLUDING paying social security and other standard taxes.

Thus, we come to another conundrum. We have a large, competent labor source working within the boundaries of the United States whose only crime is that they were not born in ‘the land of the free.’ Meanwhile, we have a native born labor source claiming they have the right to the jobs that these other workers are taking, often at lower wages. In response, our native born American citizens have petitioned their congressmen to pass legislation to crack down on said illegal immigrants to secure their jobs.

Thus we have an externality situation. Our American workers claim their rights are being violated by these illegal immigrants working within the labor market and decreasing the market of low paying jobs for their own use. To be the devil’s advocate, from a societal standpoint these same illegal immigrants pay into the social security fund without collecting, pay their taxes, and contribute to the labor force.

From our discussions in class, it is up to the courts to rule on externality situations. Currently, the legislature is moving to make a verdict on this subject, should they? Should we kick out these immigrants at all? Why not reform our immigration policies to make these immigrants legal?

As Carlos Mencia recently commented during one of his comedy shows, “If you kick all the Mexicans out, who are you going to get to build that wall?”