Published August 25, 2023
Immigration remains a very important issue for conservatives and Republicans. That’s why it’s surprising that most leading GOP presidential candidates aren’t emphasizing the most effective ways to dramatically cut illegal immigration: mandating the use of E-Verify.
The crisis on our southern border is not surprising to anyone with a basic grasp of economics. Wages for low-skilled work in the United States are booming, and jobs are plentiful. A person in the bottom quarter of the Guatemalan income distribution would earn around 75,280 quetzals a year, roughly $9,600 at current exchange rates. In the United States, someone without a high-school diploma working full time earns $415 a week, or about $21,000 a year. No wonder our borders are jammed.
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Henry Olsen, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, studies and provides commentary on American politics. His work focuses on how America’s political order is being upended by populist challenges, from the left and the right. He also studies populism’s impact in other democracies in the developed world.
