"Democrats want the votes, Republicans want the cheaper labor." Bill Ketron

"the legitimization and mainstreaming of virulently anti-immigrant rhetoric" is one of the "most disturbing developments of the past few years."

Instead of recycling the same unproductive rhetoric year after year after year, why can't we have an honest discussion about fistfuls of dollars?

immigration reform which includes legalization of unauthorized immigrants and the creation of more flexible channels for legal immigration in the future would add at least $1.5 trillion (ONE POINT FIVE TRILLION DOLLARS) in cumulative U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) over 10 years.

Over the first three years, higher personal income would generate increased consumer spending—enough to support 750,000–900,000 jobs in the United States—as well as increased tax revenues of $4.5-$5.4 billion.

Even though IRCA was implemented during an economic recession characterized by high unemployment, it still helped raise wages and spurred increases in educational, home, and smallbusiness investments by newly legalized immigrants. Taking the experience of IRCA as a starting point, we estimate that comprehensive immigration reform would yield at least $1.5 trillion in cumulative U.S. gross domestic product over 10 years

I will note that "Research generally suggests that IRCA led to a deterioration in the wages and working conditions of undocumented migrants," and I'm guessing they're still coming across the border.

And bill Ketron is not going to keep them on the other side of Arizona for you. Is there anybody in the Tennessee state legislature doing anything productive, or at least profitable* on this issue?

Whipping up the "hate 'em all" vote by spreading the notion that they multiply like rats to bleed us dry is easy, but have there been any studies done in Tennessee to speculate *how much they use in government services versus how much they pay in taxes?