What is an "economic benefit" and how does one present it? Is working at a minimum wage job benefiting the economy or does one have to reach a certain level of income to be considered, by your standards, beneficial to our economy?

I may get more economic assistance than an immigrant working a low-paying job and renting an apartment. I can deduct the interest that I pay on my mortgage.A rental property owner may deduct the repairs made on the rental property that the immigrant lives in. I can deduct the premiums of my health care benefits that I am lucky enough to have, unlike the immigrant who works at a job without bennies. I am blessed with economic benefits. I even get extra ones for being heterosexual and married. Imagine that?

But unlike those with the most privileges, my economic assistance is limited to certain tax breaks and other subsidies. I am not blessed enough for the economic assistance of corporate welfare and the current billion dollar bail-outs.

I live in Utah where the state "leaders" are threatening to cut services across the board. Yet, they will not talk about cutting the tax breaks they give to the oil industries that are prevalent in Utah. Those tax breaks could bankroll all social services costs that may be cut this year.

So you will begrudge any economic benefit that an immigrant may receive but not those that you receive or the corporate welfare that in bailouts alone is reaching a trillion bucks.

Research the burden placed on the states bordering Mexico and their plight to afford social services to illegal immigration. What is an economic benefit? An immigrant requesting visa or citizenship who possesses an education and/or skill set that will benefit the targeted community UNTIL our economic crisis is OVER. The emphasis placed here would be OVER.
Your second point is moot. Economic disparity is still not a standard refugee status. Regular immigration law, applies. Congress should decrease the numbers of approved visas and citizenship request that do not meet certain criteria in a TEMPORARY basis until our States are not facing monumental deficits. The emphasis again is short term strategic delay to fix the economic crisis brought on by corporate greed and government waste and financial sector greed. We face an impending depression. Sinking ships taking on water never float.
Corporate welfare does need reform. Why should we bankroll AIG corporate parties at posh resorts? Right? Government bailout is necessary to stem off an economic crisis that could send us into irreversible damage, if not decades of economic disparity. We The People are loaning out money left and right and I too am sick and tired of giving out money with no checks and balances. We don't even know how banks are spending Tarp 1 funds.
Go back and find out what agreements your government made with large corporations to even move into your state. Often, State government will cook deals with large corporations to land business within your state for additional revenue, trickling down to the plant floor worker. Why are revenues down? If you have a state tax, employment declines, retail sales taxes, lower property value, higher inflation, decreased access to credit capital... It's all apart of the recipe.
On your final thought, you relent that Utah already is cutting services across the board. Can you imagine 20 Million immigrants moving into Utah requesting food stamps, Medicaid, HUD, public education and uninsured unpaid medical care?  We can't afford to be Lady Liberty at the moment. It's time to roll up sleeves, kick arse and take names. Oust public officials steep in corruption, divest in corporations overwhelmed in corruption, volunteer at local schools to teach for free or mentor or tutor, visit change.gov and make our country better again so that Lady Liberty's inscription rings true...
"Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,With conquering limbs astride from land to land; Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes  command The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame. "Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she With silent lips.
"Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Wait, did you just quote Emma Lazarus to support your argument that we should shut the door to immigrants?

Or are you saying we need to put Lady Liberty on hiatus until the recession is over?  If so, can we count on your support for increased immigration levels once the economy is on the upswing again? 

Those temporary periods of shutting the door tend to be not so temporary.  Chinese were shut out for over 60 years.  Immigration through Ellis Island upset people so much in the 1920s that they convinced Congress to shut the door for 40 years.

I was in the navy. Damage Control takes top priority. Fix the ship and everything is possible. When employment needs exceed supply once again and opportunity abounds, open the flood gates wide open. Much reform is needed, in the meantime including hate crimes and immigration law.
I once heard a commentator relent that we no longer teach machinery shop because of the decline in the industrial era. Today, we set our hopes upon intellectual innovation because we cannot compete in an international labor market. Drill baby drill. Shell oil and natural gas are in greater supply in our country than any other on the planet. Even if we go green, it's going to take time. 
we can do mass employment of low skilled Americans to build the infrastructure projects, currently under strategy planning in congress and drill for shell oil and natural gas. But, several economic factors must stabilize before opening up the flood gates.

And, my quote of Emma Lazarus was in support of inclusion of the homeless, exiled and tempest-tossed yearning for the American dream.
By the way, I did have those paragraphs formatted, but change.org cms hacked that all up! Heh!

Though the Chinese were shut out from America for over 60 years, American are shut out of China today.  We have to remember that Mr. Benonion profits from high immigration rates - it's his business. Talk about economic benefit!  We have a door, and that by definition means that we regulate the flow - depending on the national interest. Do you lock your door?

I agree on the door analogy. In the Navy, if a compartment is flooding, you batten down the hatches! We have to batten down our hatches right now to repair the national interest before we can begin, again, to welcome immigration. I would be one of the first to gladly carry any ones luggage from a ship or plane into our country. But, I'm thinking sensibly about the current state of affairs.

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why would you shut the doors on immigrants?

Denver,

Responding to all your post would be time consuming. As it is, it will be time consuming just to respond to one of your "points."

I will respond to your response to what I wrote about Utah cutting social services. My intended point was that if Utah was not giving the oil industry welfare it would not have to cut an social services.

You responded:"On your final thought, you relent that Utah already is cutting services across the board."

I did not relent. I merely stated a fact.

You followed with a confusing argument: "Can you imagine 20 Million immigrants moving into Utah requesting food stamps, Medicaid, HUD, public education and uninsured unpaid medical care?"

What does 20 million immigrants have to do with Utah cutting social services? The very conservative and anti-immigration group Center for Immigration Studies puts the number of all immigrants in 2007 as 37.9 million. Steve Camarota, the Director of Research for the CIS, puts the current number of undocumented workers at 11.2 million. But I will play along with your magic number of 20.

Utah has less than 1% of the total population of the USA.  US Census figures for 2006 lists Utah as having 2.5 million residents as compared to the estimated population for the entire country as 299.4 million for the same year.

Obviously 20 million people will have dire consequences in a state of only 2.5 million. What is your point?

Maybe it would make more sense if you would have written: "Can you imagine 120,000 immigrants (1% of the total of all undocumented workers) moving into Utah (less than 1% of all Americans) requesting food stamps, Medicaid, HUD, public education and uninsured unpaid medical care?"

Guess what? it already happened in Utah. During a boom where Utah was annually experiencing among the lowest rates of unemployment in the nation, employers in the Beehive State were filling many positions with undocumented workers with no adverse effects to the economy.

Food stamps? Undocumented workers in Utah are not eligible for the benefit. Most legal immigrants have to wait 5 years before they are eligible for this benefit. verify this at http://jobs.utah.gov/export/test/services/foodstamps/313Brochure-08.pdf

Free public education. I help pay for that with my property taxes. Mormons have large families and I help pay for their education without resentment. An educated populace benefits us all.

Undocumented workers pay property taxes vicariously through the rent they pay. Thus, they help pay for the education of their children as do all other renters.

Uninsured medical care? I am more upset at the possible 1.7 BILLION dollar parachute that the retired CEO of UnitedHealth, William McGuire, may receive with his stock options.

Yes, I said BILLION. It takes a lot of uninsured visits to the emergency room to match that total. But, yeah, lets beat up on the little guy.

I am also more upset at our system of health care for profit. McGuire was "earning" a return of 30% for his UnitedHealth investors. I wonder how many life saving transplants were rejected to reach that rate of return?

Our health care problems are not the fault of undocumented immigrants.

Oh, and the reason Utah is cutting social services is because the downturn in the economy has resulted in less buying resulting in less sales tax revenue. You know those taxes that we all pay-including the undocumented.

Now if only the huddled masses from Alipac could yearn to look at real solutions for our nation's problems rather than using the undocumented immigrant as the scapegoat for all.

Maybe I should put up an addendum to my comments policy, but if you all-caps the word "illegal", there's a very good chance I will delete your comment.  Then no one will get to read the arguments you are making.  To me, it is comparable to an ethnic slur, and by capsing it, you are essentially yelling it and I tend to take it personally.  I'm sure not everyone reacts that way, but I do, and I happen to be the one moderating these comment threads.

ok no more caps, but you must agree that illegal immigration helps no one. And it is not a slur. My great grandparents are italian immigrants. They did the right thing just as many before and after them have done. Obey the law's of our country.

Dave how do you consider the word illegal comparable to an ethnic slur? What if someone who is from the same country as those immigrants who cross the border illegally uses that word? Are they racists?

I notified the CEO of change.org  about the unwarranted and biased censorship of my post.

I certainly do not compare legal immigration and lawful entry into our country with racial bias. I am biased towards illegal entry into our country against state and federal law.

I'm not saying it is an ethnic slur.  (Nevertheless, in my view, racial issues are inextricable from the politics of immigration.  This has been so for most of our history.)  I'm saying my visceral reaction to the term is similar to what I feel when I hear an ethnic slur.  Like I said, not everyone feels this way.  But I will continue to moderate comment threads based on my own judgment, not that of my commenters. 

what are you going to do whit all the immigrant in the united states?

How long would it take to bring a brother/sister from a U.S. citizen to the U.S?  They currently live in Slovenia.