Below is a letter to the editor submitted to the Wall Street Journal on July 13. It is unlikely to be published since the Wall Street Journal's editorial staff is a bastion of pro-immigration sentiment.
Your Review and Outlook editorial entitled “Mandating Unemployment” (July 13, 2009) makes the point that the very high teenage unemployment in the U.S. will be made worse by a scheduled increase in the minimum wage. Totally ignored in this editorial is the devastating impact on teenage unemployment of the unofficial U.S. policy of allowing poor and little educated illegal immigrants to work and live in the U.S. as long as they do not commit serious crimes. These unskilled immigrants compete strongly for those types of jobs sought by citizen teenagers, especially those who are poor. The immigrants usually win in that competition by a willingness to work harder for lower compensation. The immigrants’ competition also keeps the wages and benefits down for those teenagers and others of our lesser educated citizens who can find employment. Furthermore, many immigrants’ ready willingness to work “off the books” at rates lower than the minimum wage both hurts the employment prospects of citizens and makes a mockery of our minimum wage system.
