"ultimately our economy is dependent on illegal immigration"
That's BS!
In the 53 years that i've been working in construction i've watched your beloved immigrants totally trash the industry with lazy low production and crappy work.
Eliminate welfare and you either work for a living or die and there are plenty of legal residents to do any jobs that need to be done.
Beloved? LOL.
You made my point perfectly with your illustration, thanks - as unpleasant and unsavory as it may be, the US economy has become dependent on dirt cheap, unskilled labor.
The "human rights" aspect is a facade - the truth is shareholders have nothing to gain, and much to lose, by any reduction in the availability of alien workers.
We decided as a population that "cheap" is more important than "good" a long time ago, and effectively open borders are part of the impact of that decision.
Bingo Dale! You can certainly tell what people's agenda is on this issue. I saw the dingo post above.
And I would add that changing the tax law to one that operated on sales tax would snare the wages in tax owed from these workers who work off the books and send cash back to families in Mexico where they boost the Mexican economy and likely pay taxes on the cash to the Mexican government. They should be introduced to the IRS as well as the ICE. It would help to pay for the trashing that they are doing.