Why do you think that both parties want "comprehensive immigration reform"? IMO, it has nothing to do with compassion, a little to do with getting relatively cheap labor for big biz, and a LOT to do with getting a lot more income tax revenues. IMO (from personal observation), most illegals are paid under the table - no taxes. Add 10-20% more taxpayers, and the national debt situation is effected significantly.

Now, above I say "relatively cheap labor". I say this because IMO once these employees are legal, they'll be much more apt to unionize for more wages/benefits. The cost of goods and services will rise.

The weird thing about this whole issue is that, as usual, the politicians don't reveal their true intent in their actions. There are two elephants in the room that they don't really want to talk about seriously: the ridiculously large deficit, and 20M+ illegals. I just seems to me that if they were honest with us, and said the real motivation for comprehensive immagration reform was to drastically increase the tax income, people would probably be a lot more receptive to the idea. But then there's the stats (questionable) that the social cost for making illegals legal outweigh the potential income from taxes. But, IMO, those stats are regarding the Long Term impact - since when do politicians consider the long term? (or anything beyond THEIR term).

JMHOs,

SGE