1.   Burtless believes new unskilled immigrants who take the lowest-paying jobs are dropping average salaries for everyone, he said.

2.   But others say the impact of unskilled immigrants has been substantial.

3.   Many unskilled immigrants work in restaurants and home-care jobs, helping people who are elderly or disabled.

4.   Moreover, he emphasizes that only unskilled immigrants qualify as competition for Americans near the bottom of the economic pecking order.

5.   Unskilled immigrants compete with unskilled American-born, either reducing the wages of natives or putting them out of work.

6.   Unskilled immigrants provide employers with bargain-priced labor and provide middle-class consumers with bargain-priced services from baby-sitting to nursing-home care.