Here’s the full video from my recent immigration debate at UATX with Garett Jones. Coleman Hughes moderates. (A great guy, and not only did we finally meet in person for dinner; he also came to UATX karaoke!) Here are more debate details from the UATX Substack.
I’ve got multiple post-debate commentary essays in my queue, so for now I’ll just say that the overall debate quality was at the 60th percentile of my expectations. Enjoy!
From 2002-2008 illegal immigration definitely depressed wages but that was because the overall job market was weak because of the China Shock and a North American energy crisis. The recent illegal immigration spike started in 2019 and it was in the context of a very strong job market especially post Covid. Construction in America is heavily Latino and whenever we have a construction boom we have a spike in illegal immigration and the overall economy can be strong or weak.
Great answer at the 28:26 point.