This study left off the cost of their crime: lives, property stolen, etc.
In Texas alone, the cost of stolen pickups by illegal smugglers is most likely in the millions of dollars. Smugglers take them out of parking lots in big cities and then drive them for 20,000 to 30,000 miles over the course of a few weeks as they course back and forth the border. The trucks are stripped insides and ruined by the time they are caught by the Border Patrol.
Then add in the cost of their drunk driving damages. Then add in the cost of lost lives from murder or manslaughter. If we ignore the cost of crime then we could say that murderers and thieves add to the economy as well.
But in all cases, the effect of these illegals come up NEGATIVE. It's a question of how big this negative amount is. Are we going backward slowly, or quickly?
Strayhorn misses an important point: 'the rule of law.' If we don't protect our borders (and our citizenship) then we create anarchy within and without our borders because we become a lawless country. With citizenship comes rights as well as responsibilities. With citizenship comes our destiny because demography is destiny. The Mexican laborors that sneak across the border do not add to our economy, but Mexican doctors and engineers would. We need those type of people, not the bottom of Mexican (and Central America's) society. Our legal immigration was (before Kennedy) designed to encourage this. We need to return to a strong enforcement of immigration based on contribution to our economy (like New Zealand). And we need to do it very quickly, before the boomers start pulling down Social Security and before Asian countries start to buy up our country.
We will become a Mexico if Bush goes through with another amnesty.
2 weeks is 14 days or 1,500 miles to 2,100 miles a day or 150 mph for 10 hours to 210 mph for 10 hours.
3 weeks is 21 days or 900 miles to 1,500 miles a day or 90 mph for 10 hours a day or 150 mph for 10 hours a day.