I wouldn't say it's "decimated" rural America, but it's hard to argue that a flood of low-educated, low-skilled illegal immigrants does not have an adverse effect on the low-educated, low-skilled US citizens who must compete with them for jobs.
And with automation shrinking the number of manual-labor jobs these people are capable of doing, it's only going to get worse for them.
It's not hard to argue. At a minimum, the topic is under debate:
https://immigration.procon.org/view.answers.php?questionID=0...
https://www.forbes.com/sites/artcarden/2015/08/28/how-do-ill...
edit: Oh, come on, Hacker News. Don't be an echo chamber. I'm not being an asshole, merely stating my viewpoint. Don't downvote me for disagreeing with me, I'm trying to contribute to the conversation.
For example, how many farmers are going to be displaced by robot tractors vs how many harvesters will be replacing Mexican farm workers.
I just picked a bunch of cherry tomatoes recently and it was a tedious endeavor which I believe would be near impossible with a robot, given the growing conditions (I.e. Not grown in an indoor lab/greenhouse)
We talk about "automation killing jobs" - but I am not aware of any objective study on the topic.
Do you have anything I can read on the subject?