We broke the ladder

When he came to New York City from Senegal, Cheikhou Niane worked as a street peddler till he got his green card. Then he was a dishwasher and a cab driver, before he got his big break: He was hired as a bathroom attendant at an upscale French restaurant. Including tips, he doubled his take-home pay. The restaurant cut his job after a magazine story that called it demeaning, but he switched to bussing tables. "Providing things for others . . . brought me joy -- especially the life I've given my wife and six children," he says in The Free Press.

His boss at the restaurant, who also came illegally but later got a green card, started work as a bus boy in London. He prefers to hire immigrants for their hustle.

If illegal workers are deported and fewer immigrants arrive, we'll discover whether there are "jobs Americans won't do," writes Jamie K. Wilson, executive editor at Conservatarian Press, on PJ Media. She fears young Americans don't have the work habits to climb the skills ladder.

We're not training young people to become competent adults, she writes. Teenagers don't take the entry-level jobs -- bagging groceries, bussing tables, mowing lawns, stocking shelves -- that teach "punctuality, resilience, communication, and responsibility." Those became jobs for immigrants.

While teens were drifting out of the workforce, older workers, the masters of their trades, were losing their apprentices. Construction, agriculture, landscaping, roofing, plumbing, electrical, hospitality, you name it — one industry after another abandoned training in favor of illegal labor that was cheaper, easier, and instantly available.

Automation is eliminating many starter jobs, but there are jobs for humans, Wilson writes. They require "craftsmanship, mechanical judgment, problem-solving, and repair." But "we have built a society that has trouble changing a smoke detector battery."

To "rebuild the culture of competence," we need to bring back starter jobs for teenagers, she writes. We need to link high school with apprenticeships in skilled trades. Build ladders.