In the area of the country where I live, what I wrote above is true. The construction trades have fairly strong unions, and these unions are supported by other unions, so a construction worker working for less than union wages is pretty rare.

On the other hand, I am aware of a number of janitorial and housecleaning services that pay minimum wage, and most of them hire immigrants, almost totally Hispanic. Eastern Washington is farm country, and both legal and illegal immigrants do get this far North, following the crops. In addition to various kinds of produce, Eastern Washington is wine country (good volcanic soil), and Washington apples are world famous. Without immigrant workers working for very low wages, these jobs simply wouldn't get done because most Americans, no matter how hard up, just simply don't want to do them. Hard work, dirty work, long hours.

Of course, this doesn't stop people from saying that "these illegal immigrants are taking jobs away from American workers."

Computer companies tend to hire a lot of programmers and technicians from India, not because they can pay them cheaper wages, but because they are just darn good at what they do. Better educated, better qualified.

Closing the borders is one way to avoid facing certain bitter truths.

Don Firth