[quote=esmith]We already pay for them – when their children are registered in our schools, when they show up in our emergency rooms, when they drive up uninsured driver premiums.

It probably would have been beneficial for the cost of social services if we could deport everyone. But we can’t. Legalization will not raise those costs much further. It may even bring them down a bit. Annual checkups are much cheaper than surgeries and ICUs.[/quote]

What about the added cost to social services when they retire? I read somewhere, (will try and find it), that the average age of an illegal immigrant is near 40.

No, we can not deport them all but through enforcement of current employment laws and tighening of the borders many of the illegals would leave on thier own.

With the unemployment rate going up and the economy sucking my feeling is this country can no longer afford to have illegals working under the table and sending billions of dollars a year out of the country.

Neither one of the candidates has the balls to do the right thing. Thier first priority should be to do what is in the best intrest of it’s LEGAL citizens.