List Only - Wouldn't deportation of illegal immigrants free up jobs and create employment opportunities for Americans?

Wouldn't deportation of illegal immigrants free up jobs and create employment opportunities for Americans?

Seems like common sense to me. Employers hiring illegals would be forced to hire legal immigrants and Americans and would decrease unemployment. I'm not attempting to debate the moral implications just an economic question. It's not that americans won't do these jobs. It's just that companies can pay illegals less money and no benefits.

Public Comments

Si, senor.
It would be common sense IF Americans actually wanted those jobs.....so the answer is NO. If this wasn't true, then there wouldn't be the need to push for the AgJobs Bill which is really need so we keep the workers we have and get more for all the vacant positions. People behind their keyboards need to face reality.......and that is that even during a bad recession, many Americans still refuse these type of jobs! and who better then the illegals to do them? http://feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=NewsRoom.PressReleases&ContentRecord_id=405eb8ec-5056-8059-76cd-3299775ec5d0 (May 14, 2009) Senator Feinstein Introduces Legislation to Relieve Labor Crisis in Agriculture Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) today re-introduced legislation to provide much-needed relief to the nation’s ongoing agriculture labor shortage. The Agricultural Job Opportunities, Benefits and Security Act (AgJOBS) would reform the broken H-2A seasonal worker program, provide farmers with the stable, legal workforce they deserve, and offer a pathway to citizenship for hard-working, law-abiding immigrants already employed on American farms. “Today across the United States, there are not enough agricultural workers to pick, prune, pack or harvest our country’s crops. With an inadequate supply of workers, farmers from Maine to California, and from Washington State to Georgia, have watched their produce rot and their farms lay fallow over the years,” Senator Feinstein said. “As a result, billions of dollars are being drained out of our already struggling economy. This legislation would help to ensure a consistent, reliable agriculture work force to ensure that farmers and growers never again lose their crops because of a lack of workers.”
Yes. But the employers aren't going to go for that. All administrations, Republican and Democrat, have looked the other way on the immigration issue, because they want to keep businesses happy, and those businesses are happy paying subpar wages under the table instead of following labor and wage laws. Sure, if the illegals were gone, they'd have to hire Americans for proper wages. I wish it would happen, but I'm too disillusioned to think it will. Americans would take those jobs if they paid anything close to decently with anything close to meeting safety regulations, etc. The businesses are just too cheap to pay the costs. The businesses are the bad guys here, they use illegal labor to be as cheap as possible and they treat the workers horribly, no protections, while refusing to hire their fellow Americans simply because they want to inflate their profit margin.
Yes, but do not expect to see it happen. Business have too much to say in both the House and Senate. Profits are more important than employment opportunities for Americans.
Not really since the majority of jobs illegals get are jobs Americans wouldn't do anyway.
Americans don't wan to work..they would rather sit home have too many babies and draw welfare and foodstamps..Most Americans not all.
YES. AND ........ with the illegals out of work. wages would go to a livable rate. Industries like the meat-packers once paid well. Now, it is minimum wage to migrants and illegals. The large number of migrants and illegals in this country has only driven down wages. And left hard-working American families in the poorhouse. Sending illegals back home, and cutting down on immigrant visas, would keep many dads in the home back in the home country. Many villages 'back home' the kids run amok like in our housing projects. Dad works here in America and sends cash back home, mom is home alone with her boys, and the kids have no male role model in the home.
Undocumented workers comprise 20% of our economy/workforce. Deporting them would crush our economy. Yes some people would take their jobs, but that's a lot of crappy jobs you're talking about. I wouldn't take them. I'm an unemployed sculptor (had been employed 6 years at a world famous museum before getting laid off). I'm sure I could find a job alongside illegal immigrants doing laundry at a hotel or washing dishes at a restaurant, but I haven't even looked. I'm not interested in degrading my talents and way of life. It would not be good for our economy to degrade our talented workforce. We need to restore America's greatness. I haven't even addressed the humanitarian disaster mass deportation of the estimated 20 million people would cause. What are you just going to air drop them into mexico city? It would crush both the US and Mexico. no doubt in my mind. Pulling people from their homes and leaving them out on the streets. I disagree with your assumption on jobs, and think it would be a catastrophe.
I agree. Legal immigrants should only be hired for jobs that no American can or will do. Illegal aliens are not needed in our workforce and should never be hired.
NO. Americans don't want those jobs.
No senor! this will only cripple US companies because Americanos no want thos yobs. EAT CHEEPS AND BE HAPPY! Let them work the yobs you don't want.
Give me a Break with this Question. We see what is going on here though some are just too Proud of their little Hate and Racism to say what they really feel towards these Human Beings. We have all heard about the many of Deports already taking place Especially those that is so bent out of shape of getting these Human Beings out of this Country. How many Jobs came from all of those Deports should have been the real Question here because as I Read every single Day more Job losses and more Job losses. So no it won't bring about more Jobs. The only ones it have open up is Field Jobs and Grass Cutting Jobs and it's African Americans I've seen working these Jobs. It's not the Immigrants that Controls the Jobs it's the Businesses and Government. To my Surprise though you are the first I heard on here to mention Legal Immigrants and Americans together let alone Period for that matter. Because to many Americans no Immigrant is here Legally.
its true that usa companies pay illegals less money and no benefits. that is why usa has thrived. if usa companies only hired usa worker's then they would be un-profitable because of the higher wages. which would lead to more economic slowdown. that is why your plan will never happen. because usa workers are lazy, demand high wages but don't want to do the hard jobs. lazy obese and suffering from diabetes.
NO! it would just leave employers with unfilled positions. Americans don't want those jobs anymore. They want the easy jobs with better pay, benefits and weekends off.
Unfortunately Americans don't want to pay $4 for a head of lettuce or $7 for a chicken, which is what they would have to pay if employers were hiring American workers for these agricultural jobs and paying them decent wages and benefits. Just go to a grocery store in Europe and you'll see the real price of food when workers are being paid European minimum wage and benefits. In Denmark, for example, the minimum wage is about $15/hour - but you end up paying $5 for a small bag of Danish-grown potatoes or a small basket of Danish strawberries, or $8 for a package of Danish bacon.
The issue the illegals are able to live 4-5 families and be comfortable with this standard of living and may divide the bills up say 5 ways.Whereas the American is here for the long haul. Just the other day someone indicated American would shut down because without the illegals who will mow the grass ? Who will work at the hotel? I have enough faith we made this country not the illegals.At least he gets it.Note->We mustn’t forget that Latin America had universities before the United States created Harvard or William & Mary, which were the first universities in that country. We can’t forget that on this continent, as well as the world over, at least until 1750 all Americans were more or less equal: all were poor. "When the Industrial Revolution began in England other countries jumped on the bandwagon: Germany, France, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand. And the Industrial Revolution passed over Latin America like a comet and we didn’t even realize it. We certainly lost our opportunity. "There is a very great difference. "If one reads the history of Latin America and compares it to the history of the United States, one understands that Latin America did not have a Spanish or Portuguese John Winthrop who, with Bible in hand, was willing to build 'a city on a hill,' a city that would shine, as was the objective of the pilgrims who arrived in the United States. "50 years ago Mexico was richer than Portugal. In 1950 a country like Brazil had a higher income per capita than South Korea. 60 years ago Honduras had more wealth per capital than Singapore, and today Singapore, over a period of about 35-40 years, has increased its annual income per capita to $40,000 per inhabitant. "Well, Latin Americans did something wrong. "What did we do wrong? I can’t count the things we’ve done wrong. To begin with, we have an average of seven years of education. That’s the average education level in Latin America and that is not the case with most Asian countries. Certainly that is not the case with the United States and Canada, which have the best education in the world, similar to that of Europeans. Of every ten students who enter high school in Latin America, in some countries only one completes high school. There are countries that have an infant mortality rate of 50 per 1000, when the average in more advanced Asian countries is 8, 9, or 10. "In our countries taxes cover about 12% of the gross national product, and it isn’t anyone’s responsibility other than ours that we don’t charge more to the wealthiest people in our countries. No one is at fault for that except us. "In 1950 every North American citizen was four times wealthier than a Latin American citizen. Today a North American citizen is 10, 15 or 20 times wealthier than a Latin American. That is not the United States’ fault. That is our fault.
si
You can't entirely blame the illegals coming. If they didn't think people would hire them they wouldn't come. Businesses must be held responsible for the illegals they hire. I think it is a better way to deal with it--offer incentive to those companies that only hire Americans and legal residents and punish those that hire illegals. Trying to round up and deport all those people would be costly and probably would not work because they would send them back but businesses would keep trying to get cheap undocumented labor so more would come.