Up for a little proactivity?
Everyone who is upset about the number of illegal immigrants in the country should begin writing his/her congressional representatives. Don't prattle on about security and scofflaws and protests - they watch the news. Plainly state that as a consumer, you will not mind or won't care that the increased price of hiring legal workers as opposed to illegal ones will be passed on to you.
An illegal employee does not receive any of the following:
*Minimum wage, either as salary or compensation for the balance after tips up to minimum
*Overtime pay
*In Texas, they do not receive workers comp. Texas is the only state without a mandatory workers comp law, so employers here can offer a higher wage and be choosy since WC insurance is elective.
*social security contributions
*unemployment
In addition, legal employees will rarely work without one or more of the following:
*Paid sick time and/or vacation
*Health insurance
*Retirement plan
Now if you as an employer are paying an illegal immigrant $3 an hour to pick lettuce or shingle roofs or bus tables and figure your business expenses and profit margin based on that expenditure for labor, then suddenly have to provide all of the mandatories above, plus pay minimum wage and probably throw in a perk or two and your labor expense per employee increases to $15-20 an hour, you're going to be a good flag-waving American and take it up the ass, right?
Unless you are drunk on the heady wine of patriotism or in business for fun, you, dear employer, are going to pass your increased expenses on TO THE CONSUMER. Citing prior examples, meat and produce will be costlier to get to market, home repairs will increase (and that includes apartment rent - the landlord probably won't fix things for free) and prices in restaurants from McDonalds to Maxim's will go up. The consumer will more likely than not ultimately blame the government and may react accordingly in the next election. Also, there are thousands upon thousands of children of illegals born here. That makes them US citizens with the right to VOTE, and they are starting to get rather vocal about the prospect of their families being broken up. Bit of a sticky wicket, hmm?
With a great deal of the economy based on cheap illegal labor, changing that dynamic will take time and a certain amount of sacrifice on the part of the consumer, so if you feel strongly about the issue, get the ball rolling by assuring the elected officials who feel as you do that you're prepared to make those sacrifices. If they feel certain that their constituents who want nothing to do with an illegal immigrant-fueled economy in any way will outnumber the opposition and keep them in office, they will vote in turn to pass the laws you collectively want.
