How to deal with illegal immigration is a debate that has gone on for a long time and requires a lot of statistics to back up the points.
I want to see whether the immigrants help the economy and society more than it hurts them.
According to FAIR, Illegal immigration costs 113 billion dollars a year, although that is clearly a biased organization. Another study showed they pay 10.6 billion in taxes, which doesn't make up for the 113 billion.
According the the FAIR report, the biggest contribution was 52 billion for education, which may not be apropriate to include since the students might become working citizens.
A report by the Perryman Group, showed that the immigrants generate 245 billion dollars in revenue for the US GDP.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/07/02/immigration-costs-fair-amnesty-educations-costs-reform/Although illegal immigrants are not eligible for welfare, they can take other government programs.
Another issue is crime. 27% of federal prisons are non-citizens, although I don't know how many came here legally. 95% of outstanding arrest warrants for murder are done for illegal immigrants, although outstanding arrest warrants are done for those who evade them, which illegal immigrants are more likely to do.
There's also impact on jobs and wages. Illegal immigrants usually compete with Americans who do not have a college degree, and several studies have shown a small decrease in jobs and wages, but not any too bad.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5312900If anyone has more information regarding this, and their take on the illegal immigration issue please post it.
