Illegal Immigration, Good or Bad?

This past week I had some work done on my house. A few zones of my sprinkler system needed to be redone and I needed a pool company to come out because I had a malfunction of the filter. I tried on my own to fix the pool problem but after hours and hours of attempts I could not diagnose and remedy the problem. The sprinkler guy came with a team of six workers, all Mexican. The main guy, an Italian guy, told me the price and said he was only there for one thing, to collect the money. The Mexicans did all the work in 2 hours and did an excellent job. It was back breaking work requiring a lot of digging. The pool company sent out a team of two, both Mexican. They fixed the problem in twenty minutes (yes, I felt like an idiot) and paid 200 dollars for the visit.

I was thinking to myself what if these Mexicans weren't around. I suspect they are all illegal and get paid in cash from the employer. The employer sits in an office, gets the jobs, and sends out Mexicans ( cheap labor) to do the actual work. If the employer had to hire Americans to do the work, assuming any would take the job, it probably would cost me at least double the amount and the work would likely not be the quality as performed by the illegal Mexicans. So I benefit from the cheap available labor of the Mexicans in the form of lower prices and excellent workmanship.

I honestly believe you would not be able to find Americans to do these types of jobs. It is much better for them to be unemployed and collect a check from the government. The American employee would need to be paid much more than the illegal, would require periodic breaks and sick time, demand health care and probably be out on disability after three weeks of back breaking labor. The truth is we need these Mexicans and we all benefit from there presence.

To those who would say they do not pay taxes, that is a ridiculous argument. It is unlikely they make enough to pay income tax but they pay sales tax on everything they buy. If they actually had to fill out a tax return it is likely in this era of redistribution that they would receive more as a rebate than would actually have to pay.

Some would argue that they use social programs such as hospital emergency rooms and the prison system to incarcerate criminal illegals. Yes, they do drain some valuable resources but I think they add more to the economy than they take. If we were tried to eliminate the illegals we would likely lose the positive aspects the law abiding ones have on the economy but the bad apples would still find a way to get here retaining the negative aspects. We might as well keep both and attempt to reduce the negative as much as possible.

I do not agree with the anti-immigrant stance. I do not think the illegal immigrants should be given amnesty or be offered citizenship but I do not believe they should be deported either. They should be allowed to stay to fill jobs Americans do not want but not have access to the social benefits they would receive if offered amnesty (especially voting rights). We have the demand and they have the supply. If the jobs are available they will come in and fill them. If the jobs dry up then they will return to Mexico. In other words, things should stay exactly as they are. We benefit and they benefit.