Here's a Key Stat on Illegal Immigrants that Relates to Obamacare

FiveThirtyEight looks at current statistics on illegal immigration. They save one of the most consequential for last.

A majority of unauthorized immigrants are struggling financially. Nearly a third live in poverty, and nearly two-thirds earn less than twice the federal poverty line. Two-thirds lack health insurance, and less than a third own their own homes. (Bold added.)

Advertisement

So two-thirds of the flood of low-wage workers that Obama has just unleashed on the economy lack health insurance. How long will that remain the case?

Thanks to Obamacare, employers are mandated to either cover their workers or to pitch them over onto the Obamacare exchanges, where thanks to low income they may qualify for taxpayer-funded subsidies. These formerly illegal workers who formerly toiled in the shadows are now working in the bright light of day. What’s to stop them from getting subsidized Obamacare? The honor system? The Democratic Party, the media, and the feral federal bureaucracy?

At the same time, the weak economy will see a flood of several million newly legalized workers. President Obama himself described them as mostly low-skill and low-wage workers. President Obama has also strongly advocated for a federal minimum wage hike, on the pretense of helping workers at the lower end of the wage scale (while ignoring estimates that a hike will kill half a million jobs).

Advertisement

How does allowing millions of low-skill and low-wage workers to legally compete with Americans who already hold those jobs, help those Americans get higher wages?

Anyone?

 

 

Recommended

Trending on PJ Media Videos

Join the conversation as a VIP Member

Advertisement
Advertisement