Illegal Immigrants Significantly Impact American Workers

I was pleased that the Senate unanimously adopted my amendment that would prevent companies caught hiring illegal aliens from receiving future government contracts. Under my amendment, companies with government contracts that are caught knowingly hiring illegal aliens would be banned from receiving future government contracts for 10 years, and companies not already holding federal contracts would be prohibited from obtaining future contracts for seven years.

We cannot have a discussion on the minimum wage without recognizing the negative impact that 11 million illegal immigrants are having on the salaries of American workers. At least one estimate shows that American workers’ wages have been depressed by as much as 8 percent due to competition from low skilled immigrants.