@_abnormalmind_ Said
Minimum wage laws are bad economics. However, the lack of illegal immigration enforcement is bad policy (and unlawful). Putting them both together makes things worse.
Low wage citizens and legal immigrants have to compete against illegal immigrants. The illegal immigrants, of course, being paid less than minimum wage.
The cycle of activity continues to feed upon itself.
In any event, the minimum wage law
entices illegal immigration. Since employers
typically want to pay bare market value for their employees. Not all employers, but some of them, typically those found in the low-skill/trade sectors want to keep their employee payroll costs as low as possible.
And as a general rule, illegals don't get benefits, generally do not pay taxes, and become a drain on our infrastructure such as police, hospitals, education, and whatnot.
I have a girl friend who lives in Anaheim, California, which most people might recognize as the home of the original Disneyland. Among other things like factories that make electronics, medical equipment, and airplane parts, the city has building material wholesalers.
Sometimes when my mother is out of town, I stay at my friend's house overnight. In the morning (la gran madrugada), I ride the city bus to school. It's about a five mile ride.
As I stand at the corner of Ball Road and Sunkist Ave, hundreds of construction workers pass by the bus stop. They ride in trucks of all sizes loaded with building materials, lumber, dry wall, masonry, hardware, pipes, etc.
I know this will sound racist, but almost without exception, the workers have a sort of Native American (el rostro indio) visage. Now, maybe they are all illegal immigrants, but I wonder how so many hundreds of illegal workers could be concentrated in one place and not have some kind of law enforcement do something about it on at least two possible violations, immigration law or labor law.
Frankly, it seems very implausible that they could be illegal or paid below minimum wage.