Study: Immigration Raids Lead to Better Wages

By Bob Ellis on March 21st, 2009

Border control in the United States (Credit: James R. Tourtellotte)

Border control in the United States (Credit: James R. Tourtellotte)

Many Americans understand that our national borders need to be controlled to protect national security.

Many also understand that border control is essential to fighting the drug trade, especially that which comes across our southern border.

Most Americans also understand that we are a nation of laws, and when we stand idly by as foreigners violate our borders and invade our country, we make a mockery of law and diminish respect for the law all around.

But another reason to enforce immigration law has come to light.  UPI recently featured an article on a report from the Center for Immigration Studies which found that removing illegal aliens from certain work environments results in better wages for the legal workers.

The immigration raids conducted in 2006 of several meat packing plants brought howls of protest from advocates for illegal aliens, and a few from employers claiming they couldn’t operate without these illegal aliens (or that their profit margin might shrink if they had to hire legal workers).

Those raids in plants in Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Texas, Colorado, and Utah led to the arrests of about 400 illegal workers.

Among the findings of the report:

  • All facilities resumed production on the same day as the raids. All returned to full production within five months. This is an indication that the plants could operate at full capacity without the presence of illegal workers.
  • There is good evidence that after the raids the number of native-born workers increased significantly. But Swift would not provide information on how its workforce has changed. Swift also has recruited a large number of refugees who are legal immigrants.
  • At the four facilities for which we were able to obtain information, wages and bonuses rose on average 8 percent with the departure of illegal immigrants.
  • In addition to pay increases, Swift introduced a number of methods to attract workers after the raids. The company paid bonuses to new employees, and to current employees who recruited others. It also advertised heavily, paid relocation expenses, and provided daily transportation from distant population centers.

There is no good reason for the United States government to ignore our borders, our national security and our laws.

There are many good reasons to enforce immigration laws, including better wages and work conditions for the American worker.

It’s about time we held the federal government’s feet to the fire.

Note: Reader comments are reviewed before publishing, and only salient comments that add to the topic will be published. Profanity is absolutely not allowed and will be summarily deleted. Spam, copied statements and other material not comprised of the reader’s own opinion will also be deleted.

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Categories: Commentary
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  • Buzzm1
    All companies should mandate E-Verify for ALL employees. E-VERIFY has the potential to cut UNIONS off at the knees. MANDATE E-VERIFY!!

    If we combine the number of strong anti-union people, with those of us who are heavily in favor of E-Verify, we will have a winner!!

    You strong American union people don't want illegals in your unions anyway, do you??
  • Estoban
    Restrictions on employers and unions are needed to prevent the few greedy ones from excesses. Both are needed and both need to be regulated. What we don't need are ANY illegal aliens. We're in an economic disaster with 13 million Americans looking for jobs to feed and shelter their families. There is NO job that Americans won't do. Presidents and Congress' have pursued an asinine so-called 'free trade' policy that has led to a trade deficit for each of the last 30 years. NAFTA, CAFTA and the rest have led to millions of good manufacturing jobs being outsourced overseas while insane numbers of foreign workers, legal and illegal have been insourced to compete with American workers in a rush to the bottom for wages, safety measures and benefits. There should be a total halt to issuance of green cards and illegal aliens until/if the economy turns around. Then look at areas where foreign labor may be needed and use skill specific measures to bring in only those that are actually needed.
  • wandagb
    It has always been a jingoism - "jobs Americans won't do". What is really meant is jobs that underpay and provide no benefits won't attract American workers, so we will seek trespassing illegals.

    Everything you need to know about immigration and what to do about it humorously told.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBw1nUlf38I

    (Roy Beck and NumbersUSA are the "gumball" heroes)
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7WJeqxuOfQ
  • AndiMedi
    I'm trying to understand the cognitive dissonence of an anti-union person proclaiming to be pro-worker. Not sure how that squares, except that it is consistent with what we see from the advocates opposing immigration reform, like the poorly named Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus. As a group, no one opposes worker rights, unions, workplace safety, legal immigration, immigration reform, and wage protection laws more strenuously than they.

    Legal immigration is difficult for everyone and impossible for most people, which is not an accident. The opponents of legal immigration defend or try to restrict quotas last updated in the mid 1980s because it is much easier to rail against illegal immigration than legal immigration. With a much bigger economy, and an older and more educated workforce, our 1980s immigration system is out of date. The reality of supply and demand for legal immigration is butting up against our immigration quotas and reality is winning. People are choosing to go around our system because going through it is not a realistic option for most.

    If we adjusted our legal immigration levels a little, we'd reduce illegal immigration a lot. We could create a system where people could come with a visa and not a smuggler or the people here could leave and come back legally (current law makes that impossible). Even better, we could set up a get legal or get out program so that those paying fines and taxes could earn legal status over time without being forced to leave first or jump ahead in line. That's much more likely to result in people registering with the gov't and getting in the system -- and eliminating the vulnerability that allows employers to exploit immigrants or cheat US laws and US workers.

    The study, as the UFCW response points out, makes the case that legal workers and American citizens working with them, earn higher wages. The question is can we reform our system to establish that legality. A costly and ineffective approach, which I think you are defending, hasn't been working; I have a practical, pragmatic and efficient approach
  • There is no dissonance. Unions are not really pro-worker so much as they are pro-union.

    The last time I checked, less than 20% of American workers were unionized, so the average American worker is obviously doing quite well without unions. I've never been in a union, and I make pretty good money (but then, I don't expect others do to things for me). And even the "poor" in America have it pretty good (the average "poor" family has TV, DVD player, microwave oven, air conditioning, and owns their own home).

    Unions are a thing of the past, and good riddance to them.

    But again, to the issue of illegal aliens, it's really quite simple: they violated our borders, and they broke our laws, and they need to go. NOW. Period.

    For an American to advocate anything less is to subvert our national sovereignty and promote disrespect for the rule of law...which incidentally makes them a pretty pathetic example of an American.
  • AndiMedi
    This report was pretty thouroughly debunked by experts on the meatpacking industry, labor economists, and especially the union (UFCW) who you'd think would be pretty harsh on employers trying to undercut them with people who by virtue of their immigration status are not covered by most US labor laws.

    However, what the study found is that workers with legal rights get higher wages and better working conditions. Seems to me that's about as good an argument for immigration reform as there is: have ways people can come legally with rights, a visa, and responsibilities to play by the rules and then address the status of people already here by making undertake a process to make amends, pay fines, and register with the gov't so they too are in the system.

    That would be good for foreign and US workers. Insisting these people stay illegal and making it almost impossible for them to come legally in the first place -- which is the agenda of the group that issued this report -- is hurting more than helping.
  • Gee, I keep a pretty good eye on border control and illegal alien issues, and I don't recollect any debunking of this. I would also consider any "debunking" done by the meat packing industry and/or unions very suspect to begin with; in fact, I'd trust their findings about as far as I could throw the nearest union thug--which isn't very far.

    There are already ways for people to come here legally. Unfortunately, millions of illegal aliens don't want to play by the rules. They insist on cutting line ahead of the people who are playing by the rules--and undermining our national security in the process.

    No one is insisting these aliens "stay illegal." Rather, they should go home voluntarily (or we should send them packing forcefully) and make way for those who want to come experience a piece of the American dream LEGALLY.
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