Consider the 10 stages of genocide [1]. The anti-immigration hysteria is probably at stage 6 at this point.
> The law defines the process for legal immigration and many people have broken the law.
There are many categories of so-called "undocumented" migrants and you have to consider each group. Anti-immigration rhetoric from the American right lumps up several groups of documented migrants into the "undocumented" category, including TPS recipients (such as the Haitians in Springfield, OH) and DACA recipients. It's worth considering who DACA recipients are. If someone was brought to the US at 5 months old, they clearly didn't choose to break the law. They likely have never been to their country of birth. They may not even speak the language. In most cases it's utterly inhumane and immoral to deport such a person and if you explain it to people, they will tend to agree.
> Illegal immigration is not a victimless crime.
This is where we get into right-wing propaganda.
> Housing costs are driven up
False [2].
> labor costs down for the most vulnerable in society
Actually undocumented migrants are largely doing jobs nobody else will do. If we snapped our fingers and tomorrow all the undocumented migrants were removed from the US, the agricultural industry would collapse. How do I know this? Because we have data to support it.
So if you really wanted to tackle undocumented migrants, who would you go after, the employee or the employer? Almost always they go after the employer. Undocumented migrants are openly employed in every state. Alabama tried this and it was a disaster [3]. So did Florida [4].
As for driving down wages, the best way to tackle this is to document them. We used to do this with temporary workers aka the Bracero program [5].
If you really want to see how exploitation of undocumented migrants and wage suppression works, look at the chicken producers. Pretty much everyone is undocumented and underpaid. What happens when they start to demand more wages? The chicken farms call in an ICE raid, pay a slap-on-the-wrist fine and rinse and repeat.
The wealthy love undocumented migrants because it keeps wages low and increases profits.
> It strains local resources
Undocumented migrants pay about $100 billion in taxes per year [6].
> Unvetted criminals or gang members entering pose a threat to public safety.
The "migrant crime" hysteria doesn't survive the simplest of Google searches. How many homicide convictions were there in 2023? 20,400. How many of them were committed by noncitizens (note: this includes documented migrants)? 29 [7].
Undocumented migrants are overwhelmingly people simply seeking safety and security. Perhaps we should stop destabilizing the countries they come from like Venezuela.
This is a completely manufactured non-problem based on objective lies.
[1]: https://www.hmd.org.uk/learn-about-the-holocaust-and-genocid...
[2]: https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/housing-prices-f...
[3]: https://www.americanprogress.org/article/alabamas-immigratio...
[4]: https://civileats.com/2024/02/07/a-florida-immigration-law-i...
[5]: https://guides.loc.gov/latinx-civil-rights/bracero-program
[6]: https://itep.org/undocumented-immigrants-taxes-2024/
[7]: https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/cbp-enforcement-statistic...
