Feds: Immigration raids stimulate job growth

Commonly accepted wisdom states that, as things currently stand, immigrants fill jobs that most native-born American workers don't want. However, a report by the Center for Immigration Studies recently found that, when the feds come banging on the door of a factory, net new jobs are created. According to the study, immigration raids neither cripple a factory nor result in the return of illegal labor. In fact, the center says that the raided plants were up and running again -- with full staffs -- within months, and most of the positions occupied by illegal immigrants were staffed with legal employees.

The exact composition of the post-raid workforce varies by region. In the western portion of the country, a raid on a plant that had a workforce comprised mostly of Hispanic employees (90 percent), the undocumented employees were replaced mostly by U.S.-born Hispanics and white employees. In North Carolina, however, a facility whose workforce was 80 percent Hispanic before an investigation saw illegal employees replaced mostly by African-American employees, who now comprise 70 percent of the company's employee base. In the Great Plains states, a growing number of Sudanese, Somalis and Southeast Asian immigrants are finding positions at food-processing plants.