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Here in Texas the problem is different. Political effects aside, the problem is more an economic than a social-services problem (although the load on schools and emergency waiting rooms is severe). The Mexicans who travel here are mostly from northern Mexico, where more of a work ethic obtains; Torreon and Monterrey are big industrial towns, and they are more North American in their outlook on work and the economy.

The problem, then, is more that the large numbers of illegals depress wage levels very noticeably; one simple wage comparison I saw years ago showed that people doing janitorial work in Houston, a line of work typically taken by illegals, were earning only 30% of what people in Pittsburgh did, and yet prices of goods in Houston isn't very much below Pittsburgh's levels, if at all.

Moreover, employers in Houston have cynically used immigration law to foil attempts to unionize and negotiate, calling INS themselves on the union leaders and even rounding up their entire workforce to be deported in one case. They had had no idea and were shocked -- shocked! -- to discover, when the picket signs went up, that these people were illegal immigrants from Mexico.

There was a labor study published just a few days ago by an academic group at, IIRC, UCLA or UCSD, that tended to show the same thing.

Of course, that won't be news to the employers who are encouraging people to immigrate illegally for precisely that reason. Their constant refrain about not being able to find anyone to do the work begs the question of whether they are offering First World or Third World wages. I don't blame anyone for turning down work at chump wages. After all, the idea of "negotiation" implies that both parties have the right to say "no" to an inadequate offer.

Unless, of course, you think Americans ought to work for wages that are 30% of what the work is worth elsewhere, just because The Man has rigged the market....illegally.