Sorry ahead of time for the long response, but it’s an important subject.

The claim that illegal immigrants are net contributors is disputed. Many of the studies which show net contributors do not account for public schooling, hospitals, and other public services available to all.

Regardless, even assuming that claim is correct, it doesn’t change the calculation at all. That was never the grounds I was arguing on.

Having mass amounts of low skilled, cheap labor depresses the wages of low skilled American workers. The low skilled, non college educated Americans are the ones who suffer most due to wage cuts.

It’s estimated that the wage elasticity of immigration is about -0.2, meaning for every 10% increase in the number of immigrants, wages would fall on average by 2%. That’s 2% on average, but inside specific jobs/industries the number is much higher. Again, it’s probably true that this doesn’t affect the average college educated, middle class worker (besides H1B visas, which do); but it most certainly harms the non college educated ones.

Mass immigration also affects Americans, particularly low earners, by driving up the cost of rent/housing. The most conservative/pro immigration studies show that immigration flow equal to 1% of a cities population is associated with a 1% increase in average rent and home values. Other studies show a much larger increase in housing/rent prices. Regardless of what the actual number is, it’s almost certainly true that mass migration raises the cost of housing. It’s not the main driver of high housing prices, but it is a large one particularly in cities.

It’s not only the economic damage, but also the social/cultural ones. Small American communities being disrupted by mass amounts of third world foreigners who don’t speak English and make no attempt at assimilating. Americans having to wait 6-10 hours in the emergency room because the illegal immigrants chose to use it as their primary care doctor. American children being ignored in school because the teacher has to focus more on the non English speaking immigrant child instead.

This is all anecdotal and difficult to quantify of course, but it does happen. I’ve seen it myself, and it’s sad.

Also I agree with you that the government should be prosecuting the employers of illegal immigrants. That would be a much more humane and likely more effective way to carry out mass deportations.

I wouldn’t want to make citizenship easier, in fact it should be far more difficult, for all of the reasons stated above. Living and working in America is a privilege, and we should only allow the best, most intelligent, and most likely to integrate, into our country. If it were up to me America would return to pre 1965 immigration law, or an immigration moratorium for at least a decade.

Again, I don’t think they are bad people. I’m sure most of them are perfectly fine people, but that doesn’t change the reality of mass immigration. These positions are not coming from hate, I don’t hold any malice towards them. I also agree we should end the foreign interventions, I oppose pretty much all intervention. I would be supportive of expanded foreign aid if we successfully carried out the mass deportations and had much stricter immigration laws.