The American Spectator

Reader Mail

(Page 6 of 13)

br> -- Kate Shaw br> Kanukistan East /p>

I read this article with great interest expecting the most obvious conclusion but not finding it. It is clear to me that, is you artificially increase wages, whether it be though a so-called "living wage" or a minimum wage, you will drive employers underground. There are so many contractors across the country who now knowingly hire illegal aliens because they will (a) work for a much lower amount than the law requires; and (b) never report the employer for paying them illegally (or too low) because they will be exposing themselves.

So now we have this big fat juicy underground economy that Congress thinks they can fix by making illegals legal. If these same workers become legal, employers are once again subject to minimum wage and living wage standards. Forced to pay employees in accordance with the laws, they now have 2 choices: Comply or seek another route to cheaper labor.

Why would any employer, under those circumstances, comply with the law when it means paying standard wages to non-English-speaking workers? Why not just hire skilled English-speaking workers?

Of course, most illegal employers will seek the next wave of cheap labor. Either illegals will remain illegal or find themselves out of work Americans (if Congress gets its way).

The ONLY solution is to clamp down on illegal employers not the employees. The employees will soon go away if there are no employers will to go underground for fear of prosecution.

p>Employment enforcement against illegal employers is the key to the illegal immigration problem. The "living wages" may be the cause of the rise in illegal employment, thus hurting those who would be helped by the well-meaning but impossible to execute plans of the socialists in Congress. br> -- Dennis Brennan br> Foxboro, Massachusetts /p>

The EITC, the earned income tax credit is certainly a positive program for socialist income re-distribution. However, when the 10 to 12 million illegal immigrants become quasi-legal (these are generally low-income workers), they will become eligible for the EITC. If they bring in their spouse , children, parents etc. into the U.S.A. they are eligible for even more entitlements (food stamps, utility subsidies, public transportation, day-care, SSI, Medicaid etc.).

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