Undocumented immigrants are a net benefit to the United States

My respect to brant.merrell who, as always, provides a carefully-thought and documented analysis. I believe that his first argument shows just how important this issue is both to the United States and the world. I would like to emphasize his point of GDP growth as a result of migrant workers - an 8.25% growth rate YOY in Europe and amazing 9.35% in the Netherlands over the same period [1]. Although the same analysis isn't really possible in the U.S. (we don't have clear periods with breaks in between like the Dutch, Germans, etc. do), it's likely that our GDP is similarly benefitted by foreigners who come solely for work. The truth that migrant workers bring financial benefits to their country of residence is undeniable. Beside the labor which they perform at a fraction of the cost, they also furnish cultural awareness, diversity of food and language, and a new perspective of everyday life. This all being said, when these visiting workers are undocumented, there are certain characteristics that change. I would like to mention some of the more concerning of these characteristics:Undocumented foreigners are more likely to be the victims of crimeDespite what most of the talking heads discuss, undocumented immigrants are both less likely to commit violent crimes [2] and more like to be the victims of felonies [3] according to several reports. Illegals are similarly very unlikely to report being victims of crimes [4]. According to one police report, "If individuals are undocumented, there is a significant deterrent for them potentially to report crime...if you want crime to grow in a community, just have people too afraid to report it [5]."Although it's difficult to give a metric for the economic cost of crime against immigrants, especially illegal immigrants, we ought to consider the police resources, human cost, and decrease in overall safety. Additionally, crime is much harder to fight when allowed to fester in low-threshold communities. Most gang violence is perpetrated by foreignersA 2011 FBI report found that the fastest-growing gangs were generally ethnically associated, especially Asian, East African, and Hispanic [6]. What percentage of these are illegal immigrants? It's hard to know for sure, but at least one report suggests that the numbers are over 50%[7]. Once again, the economic cost of gang violence is very hard to measure, since most costs are unseen until the crime is prosecuted. Even more difficult is to try and create a subset of the crime committed just by illegals. That being said, one Stanford study estimated costs of gang violence to be $541 million per year just in measurable costs just in Los Angeles[8]. Factor in unmeasured costs (unreported crime, economic loss, etc.) and multiply the effect across the whole United States and the cost of gang violence quickly begins to spiral out of control. As a point against myself, I'd also like to mention that I have no idea what percentage of foreign-born gang members were originally migrant workers. I'd like to hear brant.merrell's thoughts on that, if he feels so inclined. Migrant workers (especially undocumented) deliver stagnant GDPThis concern is a little more difficult to express than the others, but it has to do with the kind of benefits that guest workers bring the United States. I'm arguing here that despite the good work that they clearly do, most migrants tend to work very low-yield jobs that have little benefit directly after they're performed. A majority of undocumented workers perform unskilled labor in sectors such as crop picking and animal slaughterhouses[9][10]. That kind of labor is a slice of the American economic pie that is considered stagnant, meaning it will not increase in value YOY. It delivers a one-time benefit, so there's a huge advantage to turn over workers quicly. This is probably why the U.S. has its policy of migrant workers. They provide cheap labor in a sector that isn't really going anywhere. The problem arises when these workers stay after their labor is complete. They remain behind in a market which demands skills that they do not have. The costs of living in the United States are generally higher than East Africa, Latin America, and Asia, meaning the drive to survive lead many into desperate situations. I'm running out of characters, so I'll conclude by attempting to counter brant.merrell's point of these workers providing billions of dollars in taxes. Although I do believe that the taxes brought in are nontrivial, $130 billion seems a little high. To that end, I offer a similarly radical estimate provided by FAIR, that illegal immigrants cost U.S. taxpayers $100 billion per year [11]. I eagerly await brant.merrell's response. 1. http://www.cbs.nl...;2. http://www.immigrationpolicy.org...3. http://www.sfweekly.com...;4. http://www.daytondailynews.com...;5. Ibid. 6. https://www.fbi.gov...;7. http://www.manhattan-institute.org...;8. https://web.stanford.edu...;9. https://www.washingtonpost.com...;10. http://www.pewhispanic.org...;11. http://abcnews.go.com...;