Navarrette: Economics of immigration

Many industries would suffer greatly without illegal immigrants working for them, everyone in the country would suffer without them too.     - - Donna Poisl

By Ruben Navarrette

SAN DIEGO -- Got illegal immigrants? The nation's dairy industry does, and it wouldn't last long without them.

Now that Wisconsin's Paul Ryan has been picked by Mitt Romney for the Republican ticket, let's pour ourselves a glass of milk and have a discussion that we've been none too eager to have.

We need to talk about immigration not as an emotional issue but as an economic one. Like other dairy states -- i.e., California, New York, Vermont -- Wisconsin depends heavily on the dairy industry. And the industry depends heavily on illegal immigrant labor. It's that simple.
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