There is much mis-info posted on the this subject that can be disputed, but ignoring all that for the moment, the biggest error in measuring the economic impact of illegals and/or illegals is how that impact is measured.
Well in the past, methods of measuring the impact were developed for earlier immigrants and these methods are still in use.
The erroneous method of measuring impact, which is used by all the anti websites and duplicated at FR, is the called the "snapshot" method. In this method, the impact is measured at a given time and at that time only.
The accepted method that economists use is called the "thru time" method in which the impact is measured over time, to include long periods of time.
An immigrant,legal or illegal, will always have a very high negative impact in the beginning, but thru time the immigrant becomes less negative and more positive. If the succeeding generation is averaged with the original generation the impact becomes even more positive. In the case of the Great Irish immigration, which was very negative using the snapshot method, averaging all the the succeeding generations, the negative impact of the original immigrant cannot even be discerned today.
Additionally, the economists also measure the collective impact. The US admits wide variation of immigrants with a wide variation of skills and a wide variation of earning capacity. Attempts are made to measure the collective impact of all immigrants. In this method, they are actually measuring the impact of immigration policy rather than immigrants.
I apologize for not providing any links on this subject but it has been well explained at CATO, Heritage, and the Dallas Federal Reserve Bank websites.
This cute adage, that immigrants, "legal OR illegal will alwys have a very high negative impact in the beginning" has never taken into effect the impact of illegals whose negative impacts go on and on and on. They continue to use emergency rooms as medical care, they have more and more children, who impact our schools, and they continue to use welfare. They are NOT like previous immigrants, who get OFF of social services as they become more established and MORE integrated into the communities in which they live.
The truth is that these millions of illegals are not assimilating. They are continuing to live in their "barrios", their neighborhoods, they don't learn English, they don't plan on staying here forever - they only plan on sending money back home for some period of time before they will themselves cross back over the border and return home.
I watched the Columbians, Nicaraugans, Guatamalans in No. VA as compared to Koreans and Asians. The Koreans and Asians assimilated, got off of welfare, got better employment, sent their kids off to college that they paid for and became citizens. NONE of the Hispanics I mentioned at the beginning of this paragraph EVER became citizens. They continued to sap the system - welfare, education, foot stamps, whatever. They continued to speak Spanish in their homes and while shopping, didn't want to learn English but managed enough to get driver's licenses although the paperwork to do that was usually forged.
What is it that you don't get about these illegal immigrants who aren't anything like the English, Scottish, Irish who came here to settle America when we desperate needed immigrants?
We no longer need immigrants to the extent that we did when America was young and the West was still unsettled. We certainly don't need illegals who continue to drain the system - medical, educational and lower the wages for Blacks who don't seem to understand that the demographics of more and more Hispanics hurts them more than any other class of Americans.
Before they seal the borders, I hope there is some kind of push for self-immigration home, like happened with the Pakistani's, because I for one, have numerous individuals I'd like to turn in if they don't take their sorry selves back across the border.
THEN I want the border sealed, and then I want some kind of system for identifying who is here, what status they have, whether they can even speak English, and move on from there. I'd like some kind of immediate program for sending back acros the border, or deep into the countries from which they came, ANY and I mean ANY who are found to have committed a crime, and then the rest can work on some kind of worker permit - only if they go home first. ,p. They come back at our invitation, and only at our invitation. I don't want to see anyone allowed to stay here who crossed the border illegally. That is rewarding them for breaking the law, no matter how many different ways you try to slice and dice it.
Thanks. All very good points.