Illegal Immigration
Illegal Immigration is the act of immigrating to a country without having the right to do so.
Conservatives oppose illegal immigration because these "illegals" have fallen between the cracks of society, making them more likely to commit crime or abuse social services. Liberals may also oppose illegal immigration, but generally oppose legal immigration and almost universally oppose the offshore movement of jobs, because they are too lazy to compete in a free labor market. The protectionism of the liberals on issues such as outsourcing may have led to the American illegal immigration epidemic. Illegal immigration is damaging to developed countries because "illegals" will often work illegally for below minimum wage, resulting in job loss for legal citizens who cannot legally compete at that wage level.
Statistics
The amount of people immigrating to the United States illegally is at epidemic levels: The estimated number of illegal immigrants in the United States in 2005 was 11.1 million. [1]
$397 billion dollars have been paid to illegal immigrants through social services since 1996.[2]
The number of illegal aliens who are in prison is over 600,000.[3]