Immigration then and now

During the 19th century, immigration in America boomed, but just like today, there were plenty of people who wanted it to stop. Ethnic minority groups grew exponentially and, as is the trend with human beings, there was always a group at the bottom of the food chain. One of the strongest arguments against immigration then was that more labor coming in in the form of immigrants would provide cheap labor, undermining  the people already working and forcing down wages.

The problem I am see in now though, is not that illegal immigration is pushing our wages down, but we are literally going and seeking out those lowered wages. Stores like Wal-Mart and Target use foreign labor and can pay workers as little as 50 cents per hour. American manufacturers cannot compete with this kind of cheap production and so we see factories and plants going out of business left and right. The ongoing argument with immigration is that in undermines our American system, but in reality, the American system is doing that all by itself. We as the American public demand the cheapest prices possible, and so, our providers of these products have supplied that, while creating one of the larges job deficits since the Great Depression.

How can we continue to make this argument when we won't protect the jobs we have?