Watermark. Population numbers do not mean that there is a middle class. Specific earnings mean such. If those jobs that used to make up the middle class now make less because of a Gray-Market debasing the labor cost you will wind up losing a strong middle class, or the purchasers.
If they could enter legally, the value of their services could actually solidify such a class, but if they are willing to work for pennies on the dollar because of their illegal status it cannot.
The left doesn't seem to realize that their labor unions are basically broken by these people's entry. The right doesn't seem to realize that if those people in the middle no longer make enough to buy their product they will lose the power of earnings.
Both sides are burning both ends of the candle. Sure it burns brighter for a time, but it ends up lasting only half as long and was really a waste of money when a mirror would have done to double the lumen.
Hence the reason the Libertarian party speaks of legal status for immigrants, it isn't for votes or cheap labor but because it actually cuts into a "free market" system to have the gray or black market labor cutting labor costs.
If you are a free market supporter you would not support such gray or black market labor and would far more support a legal status. If you are for security you would prefer to know who entered the nation, therefore you wind up supporting a strong border with legal entry for those who seek to better themselves here.
Thus we get the best of both worlds.
Instead you prefer we ignore the fact that such negatives exist and just keep on in the same direction. At least that seems what you are arguing for. It debases the value of their lives as they often die in the attempt to enter, it debases their values of labor as they are often treated worse than you would treat a dog and sometimes live in worse conditions and it debases your earnings potential through direct hiring of the gray market.
