Those who propose immigration reform tell us that Americans are "too lazy" to do menial work. On the other end of the spectrum, those who would crack down and close the border claim illegal immigrants are stealing "their" jobs.
Both "sides" of this debate are wrong.
Illegal immigration first became a serious problem in the 1980s as the real minimum wage fell precipitously in the face of inflation. It's not that Americans too lazy to do these jobs. It's that we can't live on them anymore.
This is an economic problem, and wages are the cause. If we raised the minimum wage back to historic levels, Americans would fill the entry-level jobs again, and the illegals would stop coming.
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