Take ANYTHING and EVERYTHING you hear or read about US immigration with a LARGE grain of salt.
Growing up in California EVERY spring busloads of agricultural workers went up and down the USA West Coast doing contract agricultural work as various crops matured. Every fall the buses went back to Mexico so the workers could spend the winter with their families. The most skilled and prized workers were asked to stay. My grandfather depended on them every fall for harvest.
Remember, California and most of the US southwest WAS Mexico until the Mexican War. (The US and Texans invaded Mexico :) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican%E2%80%93American_War ). Mexican families spend a lot of money as tourists in California every year at Disneyland, National Parks, etc etc. Google RT airfare from Mexico City to LA...as low as $300. Visas and Passports are relatively cheap.
What is expensive and time-consuming is getting RESIDENCY if you are uneducated and poor. So some people steal/copy/buy IDs of Spanish surname Residents and get low-level physically demanding jobs. Wealthy employers deduct TAXES and EVERYTHING from these folks and they pay into every program, they will never be able to use as "illegals". I had a Hispanic police officer friend who had 3 illegals using his Social Security number. I asked him how did he stop it? He replied Why should I? When I retire I will get my state employee retirement and the maximum amount of social security from the efforts of 3 illegals!!! BING BING BING a bell went off in my head...I finally realized WHY with all the talk and Hoopla! Neither political party ever fixed the "immigration problem" in 50 years...because it wasn't a problem for politicians and big businesses...it has been replacing the SSI shortfall for YEARS... And it provides dirt cheap labor for nasty jobs big business and big farms need done CHEAP. Like Chicken processing for $7.25 hr. in the Deep South, produce picking, etc.
Can I prove this? Nope. But it makes sense to me after hearing both parties bang the drum about it for 50 years.
