In the 1980s concern about the surge of illegal aliens into the U.S. has led Congress to pass legislation aimed at curtailing illegal immigration. The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 allows most illegal aliens who have resided in the U.S. continuously since January 1, 1982, to apply for legal status. In addition, the law prohibits employers from hiring

The overriding economic impact of immigrants has been and is to raise the standard of living of American citizens. Immigrants are economically advantageous to the United States for remarkably simple reasons. They take the jobs that must be done that Americans do not want for themselves or believe are somehow below them, such as the service industry works: food service, janitorial, domestic, construction and agricultural labor. Still, a virtual wave of hysteria has risen up in the United States over the issue of illegal immigration and the affect it has on the "bottom line" for the average American. Partly it is because America’s recent economic recovery is still too recent for a solid comfort level to have developed among working Americans. Many Americans still fear layoffs and any threat to employment, whether real of imagined, strikes a raw nerve. That effect is then aggravated because the workers who may lose out to low-wage, offshore competition, know who they are, or think they do. Take, for example, the overwhelmingly visceral reaction to NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) in the early 1990s. Ross Perot served as a constant reminder of potential threat. His charts and "infomercials" regularly reminded Americans of what they stood to give up. What the fierce opponents of NAFTA never mentioned was the fact that the immediate economic impacts of NAFTA were certain to be relatively small and as the decade is winding down, that has proven to be the case. There are appropriate measures that could and should be taken have already been noted (i.e. immigration law revision); now what needs to happen is a change in Americans’ attitude regarding immigrant workers.

Immigration raises the cost of public services in areas with la

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