It's not a matter of "can't", but won't. Labor shortages exist in a variety of industries.
Many Americans are wealthy enough (or able to live off welfare programs that are FAR more available to them than immigrants) not to have to take low-skilled, labor intensive jobs. This is where immigrants fill the gap.
I don't even know if there *are* enough Americans to fill jobs in and farm labor, hospitality, restaurants, etc etc
Agreed the reason Americans don’t want these jobs is because they can scam their way into similar wages through government assistance. The solution isn’t open borders and ruin national cohesion it’s stop printing money so able bodied people can sit at home
But even absent government, given the relative wealth of Americans, if we shut the border tomorrow as you people seem to want, there are a bunch of jobs that would *simply go unfilled.*
Who's going to pick strawberries in the hot Watsonville sun for 50 hours a week? Or scrub the toilets of Miami nightclubs every Friday night at 3 AM after closing time?
You think Bubba Joe MAGA is taking those jobs? F to the no.
I highly doubt able bodied people would sit around and starve if their government assistance disappeared tomorrow
But that's not the point. They aren't going to starve. It's a wealthy country, and proportionally, relative to people in other parts of the world, more of them can mooch off of friends, live off of family savings, etc etc.
The point is that *proportionally", at all income levels, Americans are much wealthier than immigrants from Central or South American countries. And I think most quantitative labor economic studies back me up on this point, that there simply aren't enough Americans willing to work the kind of hardback-breaking jobs that immigrants are doing right now.
I’d say you’re overestimating how many who live on government assistance have some fall back plan lol these people don’t just have wealthy friends/family. Odds are everyone they associate with is doing the same leeching
