If the people illegally hiring illegal migrants were prosecuted and fined and jailed, there'd be a lot less illegal migrants entering the USA. There'd be a lot less unemployment, too. Of course the price of certain things would rise...
@walabby It would triple. Do you know if any American worker who would be content on working for less than minimum pay to pick oranges at a citrus orchard for 10 hours a day? Americans would charge 2x the going rate and work half as fast.
@justanothername Not if it was tied into any benefits they received. If the right succeeded in having everyone who was undocumented removed, you can bet the next step would be to incorporate "workfare"=welfare + those jobs left behind. Because you know they’d be loathe to start paying a living wage for such work.
If the people illegally hiring illegal migrants were prosecuted and fined and jailed, there'd be a lot less illegal migrants entering the USA. There'd be a lot less unemployment, too. Of course the price of certain things would rise...
We're already at maximum employment. So unemployment is not the issue. It's about the jobs that Americans are not willing to do, and farming is one of the largest sectors. It's back breaking labor, and it relies heavily on the illegal labor force.
To make these jobs attractive to Americans, farmers would need to pay living wages, and provide health insurance, sick pay, and other benefits.
"Conservatives" in my state would be the first to freak out, if they're denied cheap labor, to get their orchards tended to. Outwardly, they're against illegal labor, and their Trump 2024 signs say it all.
@walabby The solution then is to organize foreign labor rather than it be illegal. Work visas for foreigners. Enforceable minimum wages that must be adhered to. Other countries do it.