By Chris Powell
On some days Connecticut’s political left argues for raising the minimum wage on the grounds that no one can support a family of four on the salary of a janitor or a fast-food drive-through window attendant. (The left doesn’t think wages should be related to the actual value of the labor provided. No, all jobs should be required to pay enough to support a family of four.)
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But on other days Connecticut’s political left argues for demolishing the wage base of the low-skilled by declining to enforce immigration law against the millions of illegal and unvetted entrants who have no special job skills, speak little if any English, and are desperate enough to work “off the books” for unscrupulous employers at less than minimum wage. The more illegal immigrants are hired, the lower the de-facto wage base goes, the more child labor is used, and the more welfare expenses rise.
Two weeks ago there was one of the latter sort of days as two leading Connecticut leftists, nullifiers, and insurrectionists — Attorney General William Tong and New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker — spoke in New Haven to a group that facilitates illegal immigration, Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services.
According to a report in the Connecticut Centinal, the attorney general and the mayor promised to do everything they can do legally to obstruct enforcement of federal immigration law under the incoming administration of Donald Trump, who was elected on a pledge to deport everyone who entered the country illegally under the open borders policy of his predecessor.
The attorney general articulated the leftist hallucination that the country can’t function without illegal immigrant labor.
“Half of farm workers and meatpacking workers are undocumented,” the attorney general said. “If you won’t eat anything touched by an undocumented worker’s hand, you’ll be pretty hungry.”
Connecticut is estimated to have more than 100,000 illegal immigrants, and Tong added, “If you take 100,000 people out of Connecticut’s work force, we’re toast.”
Not really.
Yes, Connecticut’s manufacturers and restaurants do report great difficulty in finding workers. But the manufacturers are looking for skilled people and they provide good salaries and benefits. Their problem is that the state’s schools are not producing enough graduates with manufacturing skills or, really, any skills. Few illegal immigrants are qualified for the manufacturing jobs.
As for the restaurants, it’s a tough business, the work is usually part-time, pay is low, and the availability of illegal immigrants drives it lower. The attorney general implicitly acknowledged as much, noting that many restaurants employ illegal immigrants as dishwashers.
Though Tong seems not to have noticed, for months the Dalio Education philanthropy has been lamenting that Connecticut has more than 100,000 “at-risk” or “disconnected” youth who have dropped out of school or are in danger of dropping out or are unemployed or unemployable. Welfare benefits sustain many adults and young people in dissolute lifestyles in Connecticut, but lower welfare benefits and higher wages in entry-level positions might re-engage them.
But why bother if there never is to be any enforcement against illegal immigration? In that case the wage base for the low-skilled can be held down forever and the state’s population can be driven up with more people who will never be able to afford decent housing.
If, as the nullifiers and insurrectionists contend, there should be no immigration law, in a year or two half of Central and South America could be living in Connecticut and receiving state medical insurance and other subsidies.
The attorney general said of illegal immigrants, “We can’t live without each other.”
The heck we can’t. What Connecticut can’t and must not do is let the education and work skills of its citizen population keep eroding and its “disconnected” population keep sulking when there is always entry-level work to do, learn from, and advance from. The state also must not forget, as Tong and Elicker have done, the atrocity of Sept. 11, 2001, and the danger of failing to evaluate all immigrants and visitors individually.
Chris Powell has written about Connecticut government and politics for many years. (CPowell@cox.net)
Chris Powell column 