The Job Impact of Illegal Immigration

Over the last few years, after I came back to Kansas, I have talked to numerous people about illegal immigration, and discussing how adamant I am about it's wrongness, recommendations on what we can do about it, and of course, discussing the issues that affected my wife's immigration.

I NEVER found a proponent of illegal immigration, and it was rare that I found someone who did not support the quick return of illegals to their own country, with no exceptions.

I was talking to a friend of mine one day, and he actually astonished me with how adamant he was that illegals should be rounded up and deported without mercy. This friend insisted that illegals were causing the increases in crime, the increase in his property tax, and also the reason why he could no longer afford a lot of his medical bills.

It was great to find a kindred soul!

However, a couple weeks later, he was telling me about replacing a roof on a house that he owned. He told me he had been able to hire 10 guys for $50/day each, and by hiring them, he was going to save about $1000/day from hiring legal workers (i.e. he knew they were illegal).

I simply stared at him with a blank look, and walked away.

This incident really did happen, and I'm sure that it happens much more often than we think. However, isn't this something good? Isn't he getting a job done and saving a lot of money while doing it?

However, here are some of the things that must be considered when telling if he really did save money, and if this was something good:

1. How many legal residents made money from this job?
2. How much would legal residents have made in tax money from this job?
3. How much does it cost to provide emergency room medical treatment for these illegal workers?
4. How much higher are our taxes to support these illegal workers children in our schools?

So did he really save money on the job? Maybe on his direct expenses. But, he also ended up paying more in his property taxes and sales taxes to pay for the education and medical for those same workers.

Anyways... This post took about a month from the time I started it to now. And the national debate on illegal immigration has come to the forefront, so I'm going to quit on this series and start talking about more issues (including immigration).