New York, April 3:

To the mostly immigrant workers and American employers who cross paths at El Centro Humanitario — a former car wash converted to a day labour agency on the fringes of downtown Denver — the nation’s hea-ted debate over illegal immigration is no abstract concept. It is economic reality.

“If people are willing to pay another $20,000 for their $200,000 house, then fine,” said Chuck Saxton, a contractor who regularly hires immigrant workers for a fraction of what full-time US workers would cost, to help him build additions and finish basements for Denver-area homeowners, “But if not, we need to talk about the consequences of throwing out 12 million people.”

Those consequences — for US businesses and consumers and the illegal workers who provide a consistent source of cheap, dependable labour — are impossible to deny. That point has been largely overlooked as congressional lawmakers clash over proposals to step up enforcement and legalise foreign workers. But, regardless of the measures they devise, the economic forces underpinning illegal immigration will be exceedingly difficult to alter, experts say.

“If we enact a law that makes clear we’re going to dramatically increase enforcement without allowing greater legal flows, employers and illegal immigrants will find ways around it,” said Gordon Hanson, an economist at the University of California at San Diego. While it is difficult to predict precisely what would happen as a result of future changes in the law, Hanson’s assertion is backed up by past experience.

The last time Congress overhauled immigration laws in 1986, the rhetoric was at least as heated and sentiments were largely the same.