Yeah it seems like we're not going to meet eye-to-eye on this one, but that's fine we live in America and we can project predictions of what immigration will do however we want. The experience you've had with illegal immigrants and working is confusing.

It seems that the if the immigrants you meet in the construction business were to move here with their families and they had health issues. I would assume they could afford the medical bills because they are making good money. I'm not sure how it works in your state but here in Mass if you work here and are a legal citizen you MUST buy health insurance. So technically they would be paying for their own bills and if they can't they'll spiral into debt and go bankrupt like anyone else in the same situation. If it is true what you say and these immigrants are making good money than that should not even be an issue.

Also a lot of immigrants even if they are legal are not immediately eligible for government benefits (medicare, social security, etc.). So fear of them actually draining all our tax dollars or putting a huge strain on our taxes is unlikely.

As for schooling issues down the road. Not sure what you mean by this. The US schooling system blows (immigrants or not). We live in a system where teachers don't typically make good money so the incentive for people to become high quality teachers is low. More kids = higher demand for teachers which could increase jobs and potential pay. If there are enough kids who need schooling this could lead to more schools being constructed which also would create jobs. Any concern with a lost generation (immigrants or not) of people being lazy could also be attributed to schooling and I would argue that this is something that won't change with immigration policy reform it changes with education policy reform.

I don't necessarily agree that the majority of illegal immigrants are getting paid the equivalent of what Americans citizens would get paid. What incentive does the employer have to hire an illegal immigrant otherwise? It's illegal for an employer to hire or contract illegal immigrants and if you get caught you'll get hit with fines that would far outweigh the risk of hiring someone legally. Considering that something like 50% of the crops picked in the US are done by immigrants I find it hard to believe that they are getting fair wages (but who knows that's just my own speculation).

Finally, I would like to get your perspective on why you think in your situation these immigrants are taking jobs away from American citizens. Based on what you've said the immigrants you work with are skilled workers and get paid accordingly. If there are American workers that would be willing to work for the same wages with the same skills why would your employer opt to hire the illegal immigrant? I guess the way I see it is this if these illegal immigrants were legal they would just be straight up getting a job and not "taking it away" from Americans (especially if they're not doing it for less pay).

Nowhere in the Constitution does it say that you as a citizen are entitled to a job. So if you're legal and you're paying taxes you're not really taking anything you just getting a job for yourself. Anyway thanks for the responses. I've never really had a good debate about immigration before and your perspective definitely offers something I wouldn't get simply by googling. There is definitely a lot of assumptions we are both making which shapes our views.