Over the past three decades the increased number of low-skilled immigrants to the United States has helped depress wages and job benefits for all low-skilled workers.

Congress passed a literacy requirement in 1917 to curb the influx of low-skilled immigrants from entering the country.

A Shift in Thinking The huge flow of low-skilled immigrants into a depressed economy has begun to change the thinking among some economists.

About the economics: the crucial divide isn't between legal and illegal immigration; it's between high-skilled and low-skilled immigrants.

Estimates indicate that low-skilled immigrants don't pay enough in taxes to cover the cost of providing these services.

According to a 1997 National Academy of Sciences study, competition with low-skilled immigrants was responsible for nearly half of the decline in the wages of high school dropouts from 1980 to 1995.

The steady decline in higher-paying manufacturing jobs and an influx of low-skilled immigrants combined to keep wages down.

An inexhaustible supply of low-skilled immigrants has helped drive down low-end wages.

Experts disagree, but many believe that low-skilled immigrants have driven down the earnings of low-wage native-born workers who compete for the same jobs.

Others would reduce the low-skilled immigrants whose presence helps drive down wages of low-skilled native workers.