S citizens. However this would cause an estimated 11 million dollars in lost tax revenue (Issues and Controversies 2012). It is also highly unlikely that the unemployed and legal residents would take on the rough labor and low-paying jobs that were previously held by the illegals. While people say that illegal immigration is a problem in America, there has been a declining number of unauthorized immigrants living in the United States, a decrease of 1 million from 2007 (Kotkin 2012). While that number is statistically on the decline, it is still causing some problems for American laborers. .
In an interview with an American laborer, Tom Kenney, Kenney stated that when he started his custom finished drywall business, he had 12 employees running three trucks. Now it is just him and his wife. Estimates are that 50-70 percent of the total construction force in Colorado is immigrants (Cafaro 2015). Tom is an independent contractor and is struggling to get jobs because of the lower wages that immigrants in the U.S are willing to take. On the flip side of this, the workers coming from the south have their reasons for coming to America for work. For work you can find easily in America, you have to pay corrupt officials to get a job. The rules in America are fairly enforced, unlike in Mexico, where the poor live at the will of the wealthy (Cafaro 2015). Many immigrant workers are willing to risk being deported and living in poor conditions just to work in America where there is work that is fair and uncorrupt. Immigration-driven competition has been seen increasingly stronger among working-class Americans, while better educated, richer, Americans have not been affected as significantly. According to the Center for Immigration Studies, immigrants account for 35 percent of workers in building cleaning and maintenance, but only 10 percent in the corporate and financial sectors; 24 percent of workers in construction, but only 8 percent of teachers and college professors; 23 percent among food-preparation workers, but only 7 percent among lawyers (Cafaro 2015).
