Should Undocumented Immigrants Be Allowed To Become Attorneys

[MagisterCultuum]

The point behind this law is because companies can use illegal immigrants for cheap labor. The stories are out there. Companies want to pay low wages, and they'll hire illegal immigrants to low paying jobs that no legal worker would do for such low wages. The illegals can't complain because they'll be found, so nobody does anything about it. And while the companies get their work done for little to know cost, the average person is out of a job because an illegal is doing it.

If there were no illegals, the companies wouldn't be paying such low wages because they wouldn't have anybody to work for them. In that case, they'd raise the pay, and legal workers would then do the job.

Actually, all the studies I've read suggest that illegal immigration makes it easier rather than harder for the average citizen to find a job. Immigrants are more complimentary than competitive to the native labor pool. Generally the only citizens who might be out a job due to an illegal immigrant are high school drop outs. The rest of us benefit from the fact that they increase the demand for goods along with increasing the supply of certain types of labor.


There is nothing wrong with using people for cheap labor, so long as both parties freely agree to the terms of employment. There is something very wrong with using force to prevent two individuals from reaching a mutually beneficial agreement on wages.

(I do not deny that there are some employers who abuse their illegal immigrant laborers. There are cases of them being treated like slaves, and forced to keep working under arrangement to which they would never have freely agreed. Such abuses would not happen if we allowed everyone to work here legally.)


An employer cannot pay his employees more than the employees' labor adds to his own profit margin, at least not for very long. Laws that set artificially low wage floors generally do not result in an employer paying more for the work to be done, but rather in the work not being done at all. The labor costs demanded by minimum wage laws are often high enough that it becomes more economical for a farmer to allow large portions of his crops to rot in the field than to make any attempt to harvest them and bring the goods to market.


Immigration laws are blatantly protectionist measures, which like all protectionist measures provide a some small benefit for certain special interest groups while doing far more harm to society as a whole. They are fundamentally immoral. Unjust laws are no laws at all.

 

[kochman]

Being undocumented is not technically a "crime." Presence in the United States without authorization is a civil violation... if that changes the ethics of the situation for you. Might not.

Yes, well, civil violations are still something we deport people over... not suggesting he should be deported, but it's basically a crime still.

Anyhow, he knows it's wrong... if he can become a lawyer, he can figure out how to become a legal resident (though I admit that process may be tougher to figure out!).