I do know that not many citizens are willing to become migrant laborers or busboys or stone masons or janitors or nannies or maids, at least not for the wages that are being paid.Insert canned diatribe about H1B and depressed wages.
Okay, that was cheap and facile. Try this:
Suppose all illegal workers disappeared. Businesses would find out the real cost of legal labor under current regulations. Either the regulations would be changed, or salaries would have to go up. Let's pretend regulations don't change.
Salaries go up. Things cost more. Instead of going to McDonald's three nights a week -- since the Big Mac combo just went from $4.39 to $7.56 -- people stay home for dinner a bit more. Instead of getting the 47-inch plasma to hang in the double-wide, they keep the measly 35-inch CRT they've had for five years. Instead of shutting the kids up with an X-box, parents go outside and play catch with their kids.
Yeah, that'd suck, wouldn't it?
Oh, and CEOs might have to ask the price of that new Bentley before picking out the color.