While promoting his amnesty, Obama has portrayed the illegal immigrants as educated and productive.
“It makes no sense to expel talented young people … who want to staff our labs, or start new businesses or defend our country,” he said on June 15.
An immigration overhaul is needed, he added, to give “our science and technology sectors certainty that the young people who come here to earn their Ph.D.s won’t be forced to leave and start new businesses in other countries.”
The influx of new immigrants may also depress wages, especially in Latino and African-American communities.
Wages for high school graduates declined 8 percent between 2007 and 2011, according to a March report by the left-of-center Economic Policy Institute.
In contrast, wages for unskilled workers rose by 10 percent between 1995 and 2000, because employers had to bid for workers amid the Internet-boosted economy.
Since then, the influx of legal and illegal immigrants has kept pace with job-creation, leaving employers with a surplus of applicants for available jobs.
