Illegal immigrants are needed in American to "meet the labor market’s demand for lower-wage employees, for which there is a shortage of available legal workers," The Washington Post contended in an editorial on Tuesday.

"At least 8 million unauthorized immigrants are employed, most have been in this country for 15 years or longer, and typically they do jobs — tending crops, washing dishes, mowing lawns — that native-born Americans do not want," the Post said in discussing Donald Trump's apparent softening on illegal immigrants.

"In basic economic terms, illegal immigrants meet the labor market’s demand for lower-wage employees, for which there is a shortage of available legal workers."

The Post labeled Trump's possible pivot as "intentional; that’s politics.

"Yet whatever he may have in mind, certain underlying truths remain immutable."

Besides noting the low-wage jobs illegals perform in the United States, "even if it were logistically possible to round up and deport millions of such workers, the effect would be not just inhumane, shredding families; it would also be economically catastrophic.

"That explains the magnetic force that pushes the debate toward reform, even as Mr. Trump’s combustible rhetoric inflames the GOP base against it," the Post said.

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