Steven Malanga, senior editor of City Journal, believes that illegal immigrants lower the quality of living for lower class citizens by taking their jobs. He gives the example of an illegal immigrant dishwasher at a New York City restaurant to illustrate his point. The immigrant begged for a 50-cent raise to seven dollars but could not find any employers willing to help (Malanga para. 18). To put this in perspective, the current minimum wage in New York is nine dollars per hour. The fact that some illegal immigrants work for only this much money allows employers to replace current employees with more of them. Although this benefits the companies these employers are part of, displaced workers will be forced to seek other jobs, work for less pay, or rely on financial aid. The competition from illegal immigration has driven down the wages of native-born workers (Malanga para. 17).
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Dennis Jacobe, Gallup’s chief economist, claims that it is not fair to allow illegal immigrants to simply enter the nation for work when there is a long list of individuals trying to legally enter the nation. The so-called “unwanted” jobs are not reserved for illegal immigrants so it is unjust to say that group of individuals should be allowed to unlawfully come to America to “fill the gap.” In an interview he says "We know that part of the reason for [lower American wages] is that a number of companies have moved large parts of their operations to labor markets where they can get cheap labor to substitute for U.S. labor that's more expensive" (Jacobe para. 10). Illegal immigrants are replacing American workers who have been living in the United States for most of their lives.
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