Is this Bush's Plan?

Easterblog gets it wrong on the Bush immigration proposal.

Working conditions will almost surely improve for the millions of illegals who take the restaurant, lawn-service, cleaning, and other jobs that most Americans simply do not want. Benefits for those millions will improve, as will the odds of labor organizing.

Easterbrook seems to ignore the other side of the transaction completely. If the Bush proposal passes, in order for all the illegal immigrants to get all the wonderful benefits, labor cost will have to rise for all those people who currently hire illegal labor to do work at wages Americans will not, and by law can not accept. The previously employed illegal immigrants will find their jobs evaporating or being given to those willing to stay outside of the system.

Easterbrook also writes about

Millions of hardworking illegals who live in constant anxiety in the United States--the comfortable U.S. majority cannot imagine the endless personal apprehension and feeling of powerlessness that comes from illegal status--will be able to stop living in fear.

Leaving aside that the fear and anxiety they live with is a result of having chosen to enter this country illegally, given the level of immigration enforcement in the United States, what exactly do they have to fear?

Posted by: Stephen Macklin at 11:02 AM | No Comments | Add Comment