I support a legal program.  I oppose employer sponsorship of workers.  They should be free to work for any company they choose.  The problem with our legal immigration programs is that it is designed to provide employers with an exploitable supply of labor.  What employer wouldn't want a worker that was prevented from seeking a better job?

So next time this immigration debate comes up, please oppose the employer sponsorship of workers.  Workers should be free to choose their employers.

...total state tax revenue attributable to immigrant workers was an estimated $2.356 billion ($862.1 million for naturalized citizens plus $1.49 billion for non-citizens). Balanced against estimated fiscal costs of $1.414 billion (for education, health care, and law enforcement), the net 2004 fiscal impact of immigrants in Arizona was positive by about $942 million.

With regards to wages, here's what the study says:

When immigrants' skills are very similar to native-born workers, the two groups are more likely to compete with each other in the workplace. This competition leads to lower wages and higher profit, causing investment in existing industries tends to increase.  When immigrants' skills are very different from those of native-born workers, the two groups are more likely to play complementary roles in the workplace. In this case, the types of production possibilities expand and wages of complementary workers tend to rise. Expanded production possibilities mean that investment in new industries tends to increase or existing industries that rely on immigrants' skills tend to expand.

In sum, immigrants are a net plus for Arizona's budget, and a mixed bag when it comes to wages. 

However, and there is no disputing this, illegal immigration drives down wages.  You can't mix the two in a study and then make a statement about illegal immigration.

Do you agree that ILLEGAL immigration and ILLEGAL employment drives down wages?

1) Education, education, education.  That's the key to economic success in this country, so we need to ensure that everyone has access to the educational resources they need to get ahead.

2)  Organized labor.  Whether or not you're a big fan of unions, we need some way for labor to organize as a counterforce to business.  To the extent that illegal immigration makes it easier for corporations to exploit ALL labor, that's a problem we need to deal with.  What I'd suggest is making it much easier for ALL workers to organize.  Universal health care that is portable would help greatly, since it would allow workers to move more freely from job to job without worry that they will lose their health care coverage.

3) Workplace standards.  There should be zero tolerance for the Smithfield Foods of the world exploiting and abusing workers.  Make it a serious crime and punish corporate executives whose businesses abuse illegal immigrants or anyone else.

4) Certainly, we need to regularize and limit the flow of immigrants across our borders, the question is what the proper number should be.  What we need to do is set up a commission that can recommend an optimal immigration level, not just generally but into specific industries, then have Congress enact that into law.  After that, once we have a rational immigration law, we need to enforce it strictly so that rule of law is maintained.

An illegal worker is more exploitable.  The fact that you can exploit someone generally means that they will work for less.

I'm not arguing against having large numbers of immigrants here.  I support that.  I am arguing for a legal system that is not employer sponsored.

Many of the legal immigrants here to work aren't married to an American (so they can feel secure), they're sponsored on temporary visas that they get by having a an employer who is willing to secure a visa for them.

Legal immigrants also work for less money, and are less likely to complain about working conditions.

In any case, "working for less" doesn't really have anything to do with whether immigrants in AZ are a net gain for the state's economy.

We really need to beef up labor protections.  Citizens are also treated unfairly, and we are all very much limited in what we can do about it. 

Right to work laws are really just designed to bust unions.  We need to protect the right to organize.

I don't know if anyone was paying attention today, but Americans salaries slipped once again over the last 12 months.  Another 2 million are uninsured.

Despite shrinking individual salaries going down, household salaries rose slightly.  Very often both parents work fulltime now.  So much for family values.  Just who is watching our kids?  In many cases, not mom and dad.

Here's part of an older study from 2001. 
"Until 15 or 20 years ago, meatpacking plants in the United States were staffed by highly paid, unionized employees who earned about $18 an hour, adjusted for inflation. Today, the processing and packing plants are largely staffed by low-paid non- union workers from places like Mexico and Guatemala. Many of them start at $6 an hour."
http://are.berkeley....

There are people riled about this issue for different reasons and expect impossible solutions.  But that does not minimize the issue.  And the issue of our social welfare programs is very much tied to immigration.  The Baby Boomers are retiring (or near it), and we need people to replace those workers.  Because guess what?  The Boomers did not produce as many children as their parents did. 

My point is that this is integrally tied into so many other important issues.  Thus, how is it not just as important? 

We're on the eve of the 2-year anniversay of Katrina and, being a New Orleanian, I was glued to the CNN coverage of the storm and aftermath two years ago.  It was during one of their reports from New Orleans that opened my eyes to the illegal immigration problem.

Many weeks after the storm, large numbers of Hispanic immigrants were pouring into the city to do clean-up and construction work; some were legal and many were illegal.  Some were being hired by the out-of-state constuction companies who were contracted to do the work, and many more were pouring into the city in hopes of finding work. 

One day on CNN a reporter did a report from a local gas station that was the staging place for day workers, mostly illegal aliens, trying to pick up a day's work.  A woman in a pickup hired several workers to gut her house.  As they piled into the back of the truck, the reporter asked her why she was hiring them, to which she gave the obvious answer: because they were cheaper than hiring a local construction company.

Next, the reporter interviewed the owner of a small, local construction company and asked what he thought about this situation.  He replied that it was killing his business and that his company couldn't compete with the cheap day laborors' prices.  He said that he pays his employees benefits, that he pays into Workman's Compenstation, and pays his employees a living wage, and now he's being undercut by these illegal workers, and because of this his company might not make it.  Additionally, all of his workers were native New Orleanians with families who had all experienced great damage to, or total loss of, their homes in the hurricane, and all needed the work.

This one story made me sit up and pay attention.  The American worker has come a long way over the last century to get where he is today - a living wage, benefits, safe working conditions, etc.  Labor is under constant threat from the anti-labor crowd to see errosions in their hard-fought gains without having to be undercut by illegal aliens. 

I'm all for having illegal aliens come out of the shadow and compete for skilled jobs on a fair and equal basis with the American worker for the same pay, if that's the solution to this.  But until that happens, I'll remain concerned about the damage that this situation is doing to the American worker and to local communities.

Good article on the effects of illegal immigration. Published by the Council of Foreign Relations.

The majority of economists it seems from the little research I have done will tell you that Immigration is a small net positive. Net positive meaning after costs they incur... So the big question is whether one thinks Immigrants are a good or bad thing socially . I think more diversity is good for society at large, but thats just me. I want to know what Va Blogger thinks. 

It's not about xenophobia, or racism, it is about numbers.  Aptly, one of the anti-immigration websites is called www.numbersusa.com.

Further, the way that illegal immigration has been allowed to get out of control, and the inability or unwillingness of the government to do anything about it, raises doubts about the ability of the government to actually govern. 

If those issues were not on the table, ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION would be on the top of my list.

Now I have gotten mine through out the years, BUT I care about our youth. Especially the ones who do not want to continue their schooling and graduate from high school, yet alone college. They deserve jobs and a decent wage even though they are foolish. Sure exporting jobs is a big issue on wages, but so are illegals.

We as a nation want to improve the rest of the worlds living standards, yet we care nothing about our own youth. Legal Immigration drives down wages SOME, but illegal immigrants are a major cause of driving down wages, along with busting unions.

Business and congress are the ones who are driving for illegal immigrants, otherwise they would have closed the borders back in 1980 with the immigration laws passed then and would have insisted on enforcing the laws on the books. We don't need new laws we just have to enforce the existing laws and close the borders. Every politition knows this but they are muddying the waters with debating what to do with the 12 milion or so who are here. I say let them stay here  and close the borders and over time the situation will correct itself.

In case you baby boomers do not know it, you are the cause of this, "IN A SENSE OF THE WORD". When you retire there will be a big gap in the amount of citizens who will be available for those jobs. Lacking enough people to fill those jobs, wages would go out of site. Those in busines and in power know this and are preparing now for that time.

While I agree that it is important, it's importance pales compared to Iraq, National Energy, National Security, Gross Productivity of America (and therefore the economy), Environment, Health Care, and Education.

The red-herring that the Rovian bull-shit artists have put out there that illegals lead to terrorism has not been backed up by historical evidence.  So far as I know every single one of the 9/11 terrorists was here legally and the second worst terrorist attack on US soil was perpetrated by U.S. citizens (yes, read - angry-white-guys).

We are wrecking the planet.
We've neither found a new source of energy, nor learned to use less energy.
Our democracy is being thrown out the window.
We cannot guarantee that our election process is secure.
We are not preparing the next generation properly...

Excuse me not not giving a damn about illegal immigration.

The anti-illegal-alien group Help Save Virginia created an online petition asking Mr. Kaine to order the state police, the state Department of Corrections and the state Department of Motor Vehicles to enter into the 287(g) program.

"By continuing to ignore the effects of illegal immigration on the citizens of the commonwealth of Virginia, we believe the governor is jeopardizing the safety and security of citizens and other legal residents of the commonwealth," reads the petition, which had garnered about 500 signatures as of yesterday afternoon.

OK, let's have it - EVIDENCE. Thats' right, I want to see EVIDENCE that illegal immigration is "jeopardizing the safety and security of citizens and other legal residents of the commonwealth."  You mean, like when the crime rate actually goes DOWN sharply during the period when illegal immigrants are pouring into the state?  Yeah...that MUST be it!  *snark*

The Supreme Court has ruled that true immigration matters -- who enters and leaves the United States -- fall under the federal government's realm alone. When it comes to laws related to noncitizens, the Constitution invalidates, or "preempts," state laws that clearly conflict with federal laws or that courts interpret to be ground that Congress intended to dominate.

Case closed?  Well, not exactly, but that's still pretty clear if you ask me.  Instead of wasting their time passing counterproductive measures, places like Prince William County should be pressuring their FEDERAL officials for real action on illegal immigration, unless this whole thing is merely an exercise in political pandering by county officials who want to LOOK tough while not really DOING anything.  I tend to believe the latter is the case.