More Thoughts on the Immigration Marches

As I was driving about 225 miles today back and forth to Santa Paula, I was thinking more about the pro-illegal immigration marches that have been taking place around the country, and the debate which kicks off in Washington this week. In the president's weekly radio address, he stated something along the lines that "immigrants come here and are doing jobs that Americans won't do".

I have a problem with that statement because it's only partially true, and ignores a basic economic reality. The correct way to state what the president said is that "immigrants come here and are doing jobs that Americans won't do AT THE CURRENT COMPENSATION BEING OFFERED FOR THOSE POSITIONS". The fact is, most of those jobs would be done by Americans if they paid a decent wage. A wage that looks great to a Mexican immigrant may not be attractive to an American who has more choices thanks to education and fluency in the English language. Granted, there are probably some stoop labor jobs that you couldn't get any American to do, but for the most part, other service industry jobs would be taken by Americans if the salary was good enough.

(UPDATE: Rich Lowry writes on "Jobs Americans Won't Do" at NRO.)

Why aren't the salaries good enough? Because there's a constant influx of cheap labor willing to work for minimum wage. If that flow of labor ceased, the downward pressure on salaries would cease as well. You'd think that unions would be a the head of the line supporting immigration reform since the current situation serves to depress salaries, but since they're consistently liberal and the liberally-correct position is open borders, so the unions aren't complaining.

What would happen if the supply of cheap Mexican labor was dramatically reduced in the U.S. economy? The Mexican activists would have you believe that it would be the end of the world and everything would come to a stop. There would surely be some disruptions, but supply and demand would take over and employers would have to pay higher wages to fill the vacant positions. This would result in higher prices as well, but that's how everything works. I'll leave it to the economists to figure out if the overall effect would be beneficial or negative.

The folks that are putting on these marches are certainly lacking in the public relations area. Sure, they can get a crowd out, but they're preaching to the choir. The people they need to convert are people like me and millions of others who are, at this time, fully supportive of the immigration reform legislation.

I talked previously about the problem of waving Mexican flags and shouting "Me-hee-co, Me-hee-co!" (here, here & here) and the effect that's likely to have on most Americans. If they really wanted to sell their brand of reality, the best way they could do it is to find their most high-profile Mexican activist and have him make a speech that goes something like this:

"Let's be honest about why so many of us have come to America. The Mexican economy is so corrupt and screwed up that average Mexicans can't find a job and make enough money to support their families. Consequently, we have come north by whatever manner we could to take advantage of the wonderful economic opportunities available in the United States. We want to be a productive part of the U.S. economy, not a burden."

Something like that.

Instead we get all kinds of "Viva Me-hee-co!" crap, which prompts many of us to say "well, if Mexico is such a paradise, why are you here and not there?". Instead of waving the Mexican flag, why don't you go back down there and kick the thieving bastards out of office and fix the corruption that's ruined that country's economy?

That would solve both of our country's problems.