(I try and stay with the facts as much as I can for decision purposes.)
Considering and going down deeper into your source (BusinessWeek Online):
Q: How is the undocumented immigrant community affecting the U.S. economy?
A: First and foremost, it's a source of value added. The total goods and services that they consume through their paycheck, plus all that they produce for their employers, is close to about $800 billion.
They're also producing at relatively lower costs because the undocumented population typically gets about 20% less in wages than if they were legalized. That leads to lower prices for us and higher profits to employers.
In addition, they're obviously a huge consumer base. We've seen that 90% of the wages that the undocumented population gets are spent inside the U.S. Remittances are sent abroad, but that only represents about 10% of immigrants' income. The numbers are becoming quite huge. We estimate about $50 billion dollars in remittances this year. That means that total consumptive capacity remaining in the U.S. is $400 billion to $450 billion.=========================================
That paints a very rosey picture for the employers of these "undocumented" workers.
You know the arugment on this. It will be a hard sell. I don't think the OBL can do it.
Very few voters have had to wait in ERs because of illegals.
Very few voters have been fired because their employer wanted to replace them with an illegal.
Very few voters have caught the black plague from an illegal.
Very few voters have been raped by an illegal.
Very few voters have been disadvantaged in any way because of illegals speaking Spanish or celebrating Cinco de Mayo.
Very few school district tax increases can be directly traced to illegals
Etc....
On the other hand:
A lot of voters have lawn services possibly employing illegals
A lot of voters bought houses built in part by illegals.
A lot of voters have used house cleaning services employimg illegals.
A lot of voters drop their kids off at daycares employing illegals.
A lot of voters dine at restaurants which employ illegals, including friendly waiters..
A lot of voters see illegals building and maintaining roads.
A lot of voters work in office buildings, hospitals, etc.. with cleaning services employing illegals.
A lot of voters work for companies that directly or indirectly benefit from illegal laborers.
A lot of voters attend churches that have outreach programs for impoverished Hispanic immigrants.
A lot of voters have had body work done on their cars by shops employing illegals.
A lot of voters have their trash collected by illegals.
A lot of voters are Christians who know compassion instead of just hatred, envy and jealousy.
The real macro numbers are also on the side of immigrants. They are replacing the 40 million aborted workers. They are essential to sustain our economy. The phony studies by FAIR and similar ZPG groups will not stand up in Congressional hearings when compared with OMB, Dept of Labor, Census, and other official government statistics.
Add the testimony of the Secretary of Homeland Security that we have to have the immigration reforms in order to secure our borders from terrorists, and the sell isn't going to be very difficult at all.
"Indeed, Hinojosa, a fast-talking, pony-tailed graduate of University of Chicago's PhD program, is cashing in on the boom in illegal immigration himself. His startup, No Borders Inc., pedals debit-like cards on which immigrants can store cash, send money home to Mexico, make phone calls, and join medical discount plans."
No one will advocate slapping the hands caught in the cookie jar when they've a fistfull too.