Path Forward for Democratic Party?

[MTZehvor]

LurkerJ said:

Illegal immigrants don't just compete for jobs and lower the minimum wage, they benefit from welfare, they have kids and these kids go to free schools and that costs America, and they don't pay tax (Except for sales tax?), and some even take English classes to integrate. I don't see how this helps the working class.

This in and of itself is a controversial topic, but the position for undocumented/illegal immigrants being beneficial is that they perform jobs for extremely low wages; in some cases, less than $2.00 an hour. Many of these are jobs in agriculture by farms that already have some difficulty making profits. The argument is essentially that, without illegal immigration, those jobs would have to be replaced by Americans, which would drive a number of farms out of business and cause the prices of food to spike.

I don't have a definitive position on it myself, but the argument is there to be made that whatever drain on welfare is made up for by supporting the agriculture industry and keeping food prices down. Admittedly, you have to walk an extremely thin tightrope to avoid sounding like you're actively condoning below minimum wage pay, but Clinton didn't even try to defend the "it's not bad for the economy" position.