dippin

So you want me to prove a negative on the first post? Well, I would think that the fact that there are no Americans lining up in front of Home Depots in the places where crackdowns have made illegal immigrants move away is enough evidence.

In any case, there are plenty of evidence out there that doesn't rely on asking Americans if they'd work for the same salaries as illegal immigrants. All you have to do is look at what happened when the guest worker visa renewal was delayed. Now, that isn't illegal immigration per se, and those guest workers, though paid less than Americans, still make more money than actual illegals. In any case:

Immigration's Fallout: Fewer Fresh Tomatoes? : NPR

If you still don't buy it, polls have consistently shown that a majority Americans think illegal immigrants take jobs Americans don't want.
Immigration

There are other stories like it if you want.

As far as providing evidence that Americans prefer businesses that hire illegal immigrants due to lower cost, well, that one is nearly tautological, isn't it? After all, if hiring illegal immigrants wasn't giving them a boost, they wouldn't hire them, right?

In any case, the biggest companies to be busted for hiring illegal immigrants are walmart and mcdonalds. But if you still need citations and evidence:
"Cortes, Patricia. “The Effect of Low-Skilled Immigration on U.S. Prices: Evidence from
CPI Data.” Mimeo, MIT, November 2005"

In any case, I've yet to see any consumer survey where "company doesn't hire illegal aliens" has anything more than a negligible impact on buying decisions.




Now, regarding the "path to citizenship." The majority of people who become naturalized US citizen do it through family connections (i.e., they get married to American citizens, they are related to American citizens, etc.)

If that is not the case, the path to citizenship is first getting an employer to sponsor a H1B visa for you. After that, they have to apply for a PERM, which is a labor department certification that the company tried to hire an American to do that job but couldn't. With that in hand, they apply for the green card. After getting the green card, they can apply for citizenship after 5 years.

There is a 65000 cap per year for new H1bs. H1bs can be received relatively fast if one pays the premium fee. After that, the median processing time for the PERM is 7 months. For employment based green cards, unless the person has some outstanding abilities, the wait time is over 7 years for skilled workers, and 9 for non skilled workers.

Visa Bulletin April 2010

After that, the naturalization process takes about 1 and a half years.

So you are talking about a path to citizenship that, if it goes without a hitch, would take 14 years for a skilled worker doing a job his or her company couldn't find an American to do to become a citizen. 14 where this person would pay taxes, contribute to social security, medicare and medicaid but wouldn't be eligible for any of those programs, and could simply be forced to go back to their country is there is any significant lapse in employment before the green card is finalized.