May 24, 2025

The U.S. economy acquired a dependence upon immigrants to get work done which Americans can't do in such areas as agriculture, house framing, cleaning, factory work, food services and small businesses.

For several decades, it was mostly the illegal immigrants that did that type of work. The process worked so good that Congress was in no rush to get involved. In fact, it was the illegals who were most critical immigrants, because they were single men with the stamina and purposes required. Later, green cards were used for that purpose; but they could not replace the previous efficiency or effectiveness. So a lot of illegals kept doing what they used to do.

The economy benefitted not only in getting a lot of work done but in contributions to government revenue, since the illegal workers had to pay Social Security into the system but could not get anything in return. Before green cards, they were probably paying about $50 billion per year into the government treasury.

They were not perpetrating crime, as hard work left no place for crime. The few immigrants who turned to gangs were a different bunch, usually with nothing to do in a few large cities. If that type of crime were of much significance, it could have been eliminated the same way the mafia was eliminated; but there apparently wasn't enough relevance to do much about it.

Law enforcement has the responsibility for crime. If they can't handle crime, they need to be improved until they can. Going around law enforcement with deportations cannot solve criminality problems. It takes investigations and courts to solve criminality problems.

That means showing up at places of work to deport immigrants is a contempt for rationality and a detriment to the economy. There is a very limited supply of laborers in the U.S., which is one of the main reasons why factories moved out. They needed to expand and globalize, as digitalization was added to products. The factories can't be replaced with the shortage of workers that exists in the U.S.; and the domestic products can't be produced without immigrant laborers.