Minimum Wage and Immigration "Reform"

Michael Dukakis and Daniel J.B. Mitchell wrote in The New York Times that raising the minimum wage would make many of the jobs now held by undocumented aliens more attractive to Americans, reducing the demand for illegal immigration. They also explain clearly the problems--including intrusions on civil liberties and huge costs--with current proposals for immigration deform.

(Reading Mike Dukakis' reasoning, I realize what a different place the world would be if he had been elected President in 1998.)

Proponents of immigration "reform" try to focus attention on the difference between those who come here legally--who "play by the rules" and those who don't. Fair enough. But that argument ignores the way we've allowed our immigration policy to be handled with a wink and a nod, turning a blind eye and allowing millions of undocumented aliens in to fill American jobs. Dukakis and Mitchell propose to work on the supply side of that equation--by attracting more Americans--but they do not really discuss how to keep employers from cheating and abusing workers, especially illegal immigrants. That will be a huge undertaking. Nor do they--or anyone else that I've seen--discuss the real solution to our immigration woes: raising income levels in other nations and so reducing the desire to emigrate.