Yes we do and shall need even more as the baby boomers retire but not the amount we have.
If you did not have the jobs I am certain many of the immigrants would not want to come into the US I know the argument of welfare etc but many I am certain come for work and work that really should be done by Americans. The reason why they are not taking those jobs IMHO needs to be tackled then look at how many extra people you need and a way of regulating them either using those already in the US or bring in others legally. Also if you take the EU out of the argument you still have many kosovans and Africans most of which are illegal.
Many of these jobs are being offered because illegals represent a cheap, exploitable source of labor. They can be paid lower wages and receive fewer social benefits, at least initially. I believe that many of the poor and uneducated of Latin America will still come because it is better to be poor in America than in the failed countries of Latin America and their corrupt governments.
"This situation is unique for the United States and the world. No other First World country has such an extensive land frontier with a Third World country. The significance of the long Mexican-U.S. border is enhanced by the economic differences between the two countries. “The income gap between the United States and Mexico,” Stanford University historian David Kennedy has pointed out, “is the largest between any two contiguous countries in the world.”
The reason why they are not taking those jobs IMHO needs to be tackled then look at how many extra people you need and a way of regulating them either using those already in the US or bring in others legally.
Our current legal immigration laws need to be changed so that we can bring in the kinds of people we need in the numbers we need to help our economy.