First, the question related to what divides the "elite" Republicans from workers. It was not a theory question.
Regarding immigration, my personal opinion is that the US should double its legal immigration quota to around 2 million per year while securing its border as tightly as possible against illegal immigration, drugs, and human trafficking. The quotas could then be adjusted based on US unemployment rates... more unemployment lower quotas, less unemployment higher quotas.
In addition, the US should adopt a merit-based system similar to Canada. 500,000 or so of those additional slots should be offered to refugees and immigrants that become part of a guest worker program.
Once we have secure borders, we should offer illegal immigrants access to a guest worker program, whereby if they register as guest workers and show they have jobs they won't be deported, but their employers will be audited to insure they pay their workers according to US wage laws. Illegal immigrants that do not register through the guest worker program would be subject to deportation.
The immediate family of illegal immigrants in the guest worker program would be eligible to remain in this country as long as at least one family member is working full time.
Regarding the contribution of immigrants, it is extremely misleading to put legal immigrants and illegal immigrants in the same bucket. Studies show legal immigrants make an enormous contribution to our economy relative to the incremental cost on our entitlement programs. Your statements relate to this group.
Meanwhile, illegal immigrants put a financial drain on our country, it is not until their children or grandchildren grow up that they make a positive net contribution to the economy. That means it takes over 20 years for illegal immigrants to make a net positive contribution to the US economy less the cost of their entitlements. Below is an estimate of the cost of illegal immigration to the government... so far, I don't know of a single state, that believes illegal immigrants contribute enough to offset their cost to the state government.
https://www.fairus.org/issue/publications-resources/fiscal-burden-illegal-immigration-united-states-taxpayers
Regarding offshoring, as mentioned, most workers support tariffs or at least fair-trade arrangements. This makes offshoring very difficult. Unions won't be able to protect most workers, they have not even been able to protect their members as is. That is why union membership is collapsing except in the public sector. Private sector union membership is now below 10% of the private sector workforce.
