Beyond the political rhetoric, let's discuss what everyone believes the pros and cons of illegal immigration are.
If someone gives a pro or a con you disagree with, please give a reason you disagree with that being either a pro or a con.
I'll start with the biggest con (in my oh so humble opinion) the fact that they can come over here and have a child and attach themselves to our social services system.
So, for example if you believe that isn't a reason to put a stop to illegal immigration, please tell me WHY that is, rather than just saying it isn't.
You can say that about any demographic who doesn't contribute value to the social security system. That is by far not the biggest con to illegal immigration, nor is that the major cause of downfall to the social security system. It is a problem, but the system has been in trouble for a long time. I guess I will make a list of pros and cons I can think of.
Cons:
1. The importation of poverty, this includes the driving down of wages on average for Americans. Citizens now have to compete for jobs with "dreamers" who are completly content with not only being paid less, but also willing to not demand benefits. Not only are they a much cheaper form of labor for business owners, but you don't have to pay taxes on them either. This gives business owners using illegal immigrants an unfair advantage over those using citizens, or legal migrants, and now those business have to either charge a higher price for goods and services, or switch to illegal immigrants themselves to be able to compete. The chamber of commerce is all for this cheap labor by the way. There is also a much added strain on the welfare and social services systems from those who have never once payed taxes, or legal fees, etc. to enter the United States properly. With poverty also comes a lower standard of living that many citizens just aren't comfortable to compete with. 3 seperate illegal alien families are content with sharing a 1100 sq ft cape cod style home, bringing their retail costs down while keeping ours at the same high level...since there's not much demand for lower cost competitive housing
2. The added strain on the public school system. The cost of educating students from illegal aliens was estimated to be about 44.5 billion dollars in 2008. This is not including any added costs like the extra cost it takes to educate a non English speaking student, like many of them are. Or other costs like additional school infrastructure required to house the additional students, cost of extra administration staff, translators, textbooks, etc.
3. The loss of the blind rule of law. Not only have you broke the law to come here illegally, you also have become above the law with respect to the average American citizen. Federal immigration authorities last year released 19,723 criminal illegal aliens back onto U.S. streets who have been convicted of 64,197 crimes — including 208 homicides.
If you get a DUI as an illegal alien, chances are you get caught and released. Rarely are illegal aliens charged. Compared to you or me, who get bleeped in the bleep if we were to get nabbed with a DUI. Also if you or I were to be hit by an illegal in a car accident, chances are we're eating that cost even though we're not at fault.
Read more:
Murderers, Rapists, Kidnappers: Nearly 20,000 Criminal Aliens Released in 2015
4. Loss of national security. We simply do not know who is crossing our boarders. Let's not pretend like there are not people elsewhere, who would love nothing more than to come here and cause harm to Americans. On top of that criminal rapist Jorge Alvarez from Panama, can walk across the boarder and tell us his name is Jose Conseco, and non of us would be any the wiser. And if so many people are waltzing across our boarders, one can only imagine the amount of drugs, and the rest of the crimes that go with that, that are coming across the boarder as well. Has anybody heard of the Zika virus? Well if we don't know who is crossing our boarders, we also don't know what diseases they are bringing. We need to know who and what is coming into our country.
Now personally I believe that our immigration system should be opened up. So that we get more immigrants here LEGALLY, and disincentivise illegal immigration. The amount of hoops to jump through and cost, just like anything else in the US, to come here legally is absolutely ridiculous. The left will tell you the answer to these problems I listed is simply amnesty. Which history shows us only encourages more illegal immigration. Now the left cares about the rule of law only when it pertains to issues that they care about, like gay marriage (which I am for). You will hear them shout it's the "law of the land", but when it comes to this issue, they are silent.