Quote Originally Posted by Uboat509 View Post
It is also a fundamentally flawed statement in that, if the illegal immigrants were to suddenly be legalized then they would not do those jobs at those wages and under those working conditions any longer either.
I suppose that statement would be true if they were all working for unreported cash. I don't believe that is true. Most of the ones I ran into worked for established companies and got a paycheck. Some had been working those jobs for years, especially construction jobs. If they were legalized, why would they suddenly refuse to do jobs that they had been making an adequate living at, especially in an uncertain economy?

A more powerful argument in favor of some kind of change from illegal to legal status is that you aren't going to move 12 million or so people out of the country short or resurrecting the SS. They are here, they are going to stay here so why not recognize the situation and make it easier for all involved? One of the perverse benefits of a legal status that has been commented upon is that a number of those people might go home. Right now they are in and they stay because they don't want to take the chance of not getting back in if they go home. Who knows what will happen in the future so they stay. If they have a legal status they can go home without worry because they can come back if they have to.