Eugene Robinson writing in The Washington Post:
There are economists, I realize, who argue that illegal immigration — mostly from Mexico — has depressed wages for unskilled labor, to the detriment of low-income, native-born African Americans and whites.
Other economists disagree, and in any case the effect is somewhere between negligible and small. There’s no reason employers can’t be required to pay a living wage to every janitor, whether his name is John or Juan.
But I don’t think the immigration debate is about economics anyway. It’s about culture and it’s about fear.
Among other things, it’s about this voice-mail message: “Para continuar en español, oprima el numero 2. To continue in Spanish, press 2.”
Robinson notes that California and Texas are states without a majority population and that New York, Arizona and Florida are soon to follow. He neglects to include New Mexico and Hawaii, states already without a majority.