[jluetjen]

It's not just about "costs". These people also produce. If you think that labor rates will go up as a result of the illegal immigrants being shut-out -- you're right -- to a degree. They will only go up for those jobs that the illegal immigrants did that can't be moved. Generally these are low pay scale, menial jobs that college educated (or even high-school educated) Americans don't want. But since consumers (people like you and me) rarely will put up with a price increase for long, any jobs which are currently done by illegal immigrants which can be off shored to countries with cheaper labor -- will be. So by "solving" the illegal immigrant (aka: cheap labor in the US), you'll just be adding fuel to the fire in regards to off-shore job losses.

My ancesters were immigrants to this country who came here to do the cheap labor jobs in the textile mills here in the North East over 100 years ago. If we had our current immigration laws at that time, I expect that many of us wouldn't be here right now. I honestly believe that the U.S. would have been the worse off for it to.