"but I don't know of a lot of big companies that want illegals."
WalMart does. So does Tyson Foods. So do the multinational Casinos in Las Vegas. They're large corporations.
It depends upon the industry. Food processing, such as meat packers, use illegals on a massive scale as do the hotel industry, restaurant chains, and corporate ag.
FYI
Going Underground - Barron's
The shadow economy is about to top $1 trillion -- at a great cost to many
By JIM MCTAGUE
AMERICA HAS TWO ECONOMIES, and one is flourishing at the expense of the
other. First, there's the legitimate economy, in which craftsmen are
licensed and employers and employees pay taxes.
Then there's the fast-growing underground economy, where millions of nannies, construction workers and others are paid off-the-books, their incomes largely untaxed.
The best guess as to the size of the output of this shadow economy is about $970 billion, or nearly 9% that of the real economy. It should soon pass $1 trillion.
What is largely fueling the underground economy, experts say, is the
nation's swelling ranks of low-wage illegal immigrants. -snip-very long.
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/soc.culture.romanian/browse_thread/thread/1bb41897c2797fca/a037432e6e83160d?q=%22The+Underground+Labor+Force+Is+Rising+to+the+Surface%22&_done=/groups?q=%22The+Underground+Labor+Force+Is+Rising+to+the+Surface%22%252
Diverse Alliance Supports Comprehensive Immigration Reform
April 21, 2004 Washington, DC Today, a remarkable alliance of business, labor, religious, ethnic, and immigrant advocacy groups ran a full-page ad .
The ad text reads in part: We congratulate President Bush for raising the issue of comprehensive immigration reform, (i.e. amnesty)
The ad was signed by 24 organizations representing key constituencies covering the political spectrum:
Business: American Health Care Association; American Hotel & Lodging Association; American Nursery & Landscape Association; International Franchise Association; National Council of Chain Restaurants; National Restaurant Association; and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
The businesses listed all benefit from cheap labor. Illegal aliens help cheapen labor, even if the businesses dont directly employ them. Also, all those millions of illegals are working somewhere, arent they?