Business to Supreme Court: Ending DACA Amnesty Will Boost Americans’ Wages
by Neil Munro
Business groups asked the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold the DACA amnesty for 650,000 illegals — but their plea to the court cites two studies that predict Americans’ wages will rise if the DACA illegals are sent home.
“History confirms that forcing Dreamers out of the workforce will reduce job growth and harm the U.S. economy,” says the legal plea submitted to the court on October 4 by 143 business associations and companies:
After Arizona passed the Legal Arizona Workers Act (LAWA) in 2007, which targeted the use of unauthorized workers, economic growth fell, reducing job opportunities. The State’s total employment was 2.5 percent less than what it would have been without the law, and its GDP was reduced by an average of 2 percent a year between 2008 and 2015.
The legal brief attributes the data to a 2016 article in the Wall Street Journal, which was titled, “The Thorny Economics of Illegal Immigration.” But the business groups hid the article’s main conclusion: Fewer illegals ensure more pay for Americans:
Economists of opposing political views agree the state’s economy took a hit when large numbers of illegal immigrants left for Mexico and other border states, following a broad crackdown. But they also say the reduced competition for low-skilled jobs was a boon for some native-born construction and agricultural workers who got jobs or raises, and that the departures also saved the state money on education and health care. Whether those gains are worth the economic pain is the crux of the [political] debate.
Donald Trump won that political debate in 2016 when he was elected on a promise to cut illegal immigration and raise wages.
The 2016 WSJ article showed the pay gains for Americans in Arizona:
a worker shortage began surfacing in industries relying on immigrants, documented or not. Wages rose about 15% for Arizona farmworkers and about 10% for construction between 2010 and 2014, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Some employers say their need for workers has increased since then, leading them to boost wages more rapidly and crimping their ability to expand.
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Carlos Avelar, a placement officer at Phoenix Job Corps, a federal job-training center, says graduates now often mull two or three jobs offers from construction firms and occasionally start at $14.65 an hour instead of $10.
At DTR Landscape Development LLC, the firm’s president, Dick Roberts, says he has increased his starting wage by 60% to $14.50 an hour because he is having trouble finding reliable workers.
[Farmer Rob Knorr] says mechanization is his future. He continues to pour time and money into a laser-guided device to remove stems from peppers, which pickers now do by hand in the field. Another farmer in the area developed a mechanical carrot harvester.
Mr. Knorr says he is willing to pay $20 an hour to operators of harvesters and other machines, compared with about $13 an hour for field hands. He says he can hire skilled machinists at community colleges, so he can rely less on migrant labor.
“I can find skilled labor in the U.S.,” he says. “I don’t have to go to bed and worry about whether harvesting crews will show up.”
The Supreme Court’s judges will host a brief public debate on the legal arguments on November 12.
full story at https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/10/04/business-to-supreme-court-ending-daca-amnesty-will-boost-americans-wages/