When a person tells him that illegal immigrants are taking jobs from Americans, he asks him to name someone “who cannot get a job because a Mexican illegally here has taken the job they want.” Huckabee goes on: “If that’s the case, if you can get me their name and phone number by 5 this afternoon, I can have them making a bed, plucking a chicken, tarring a roof or picking a tomato by the morning at 8 o’clock.” He’s still waiting for a name.

Now, this is of course a fundamentally bad model. Illegal immigration forces US citizens to get skills —and move to locations-they wouldn't otherwise. A huge share of the White and black population citizen population have moved-and I don't think it was because they didn't like the climate. As George Borjas has pointed out, the jobs that are open to illegal immigrants become lower paid compared to whatever jobs are left to US citizens—who must earn even more to pay heavy taxes to subsidize the wealthy interests that profit from mass immigration. If immigration laws were enforced "making a bed, plucking a chicken, tarring a roof" would all pay substantially more—or be automated and become extensions of de facto professional jobs.

Anyhow, the GOP has no serious contender that is moderate-let alone realistic on the issue of immigration. Those folks just cannot restrain themselve from being the lapdogs of the wealthy interests that fund them-even when it is political suicide.

Now, Sen. John McCain spuriously offered Americans $50.00/hour to pick lettuce-and got over 3700 applications(so far as I know he gave no one a job). I suspect Huckabee has lower wages in mind and he'll also expect these folks to be suitably submissive—and respectful of the property rights of the kinds of wealthy interests that bankroll the GOP. Somehow I doubt he's get what he wants.