They already have the opportunity to apply. Four million are waiting their turn overseas to enter. There is no direction connection to being considered legally to enter and just flouting our laws and entering illegally. The illegals are not in line. They are working and staying here. What they are doing is a slap in the face to legal immigrants who followed the rules.
Without the freebies, legal immigration would either drop significantly, or shift immigration to more productive people. And those are who I welcome: the ones that are willing to work.
I don't know if you ever lived or traveled to the Third World, but living in America even without the "freebies" is far more desirable. They are willing to work, but many qualify automatically for benefits just like Americans. They are part of the working poor.
In 1970, we had 200 million people in the US. If you subtract out the estimated 20 million illegals, 25 million in 2014 is only about 66% more than the 15 million foreign-born that would be expected after a 50% increase in population.
The government claims there are only 11.5 million illegals. We do know there are 30 million legal immigrants. We have just had the two largest decades of legal immigration in our history. And immigration quotas are not connected to our population increases. Immigrants and their American-born children drive 80% of our population growth.
If they don't become citizens before retiring, yes. We can use those excess taxes to help dig Social Security out of the hole.
You don't have to be a citizen to collect SS benefits. If you pay into the system and accrue the required number of quarters, you get benefits. We have 15 million green card holders, many of whom don't want to become citizens. Many retire back in their home countries and collect their benefits there.
SS is a pay as you go system. Today's workers pay for today's retirees. SS has been running in the red since 2010 and will continue to do so until 2033 when it runs out of IOUs in the SSTF. Immigrants won't help SS get out of the hole. They are making the hole deeper.
I agree, this is an issue. The US is unique in this respect, and I've read arguments that it was never the intent of the 14th Amendment. But, it would take another Constitutional Amendment or a Supreme Court decision to address it.
There are 33 countries that have birthright citizenship. Most of them are in the Western hemisphere. The US and Canada are the only two developed countries that have birthright citizenship. Mexico has birthright citizenship.