Pro: Performing Labor Intensive Jobs

• Performing low-wage, labor-intensive jobs is one of the most common benefits cited of illegal immigrants on the economy. The thinking holds that illegal immigrants, unable to land skilled employment and often desperate for money, are willing to take on manual labor, including landscape work, farming, meat packing, cleaning and factory work. The U.S. economy depends heavily on such manual labor, and illegal immigrants usually are more willing to take on such work. Additionally, the proportion of unskilled workers in the U.S. has shrunk significantly in recent decades. According to the Migration Policy Institute, half of U.S.-born adults did not complete high school in 1960, making them more likely to join the pool of unskilled labor. That amount fell to 8 percent by 2010. Illegal immigrants, therefore, keep the economy moving by filling the need for unskilled labor.
  
  

Pro: Lower the Cost of Products

• Despite minimum wage laws, illegal immigrants often fall into positions that pay less than minimum wage. Undocumented workers do not report these employers because doing so would expose their own illegal status. In turn, companies that use illegal immigrants save money and can offer products at lower cost to customers, allowing those people to spend more money elsewhere and bolstering the economy. This holds true even for companies that pay undocumented workers minimum wage; chances are, these workers still make less than legal workers would demand.
  
  

Pro: Purchase Goods and Services

• Illegal immigrants must purchase basic goods and services just to survive. They benefit the economy by spending money on things like food, clothing and consumer products.
  
  

Con: Remittances

• A clear con of illegal immigration on the economy is related to goods and services. Although undocumented workers spend money on consumer products, they tend to send a lot of money out of the country as well in the form of remittances. Remittances are payments made to family in the immigrant's home country. The money may help the family survive, or may be saved there to facilitate more immigration to the United States. Regardless, it is money that is earned in the U.S. but not cycling through the economy here.
  
  

Con: Government Spending

• It's hard to know the true economic impact of illegal immigration on the economy. Some undocumented workers do pay into Social Security, but will never reap its benefits, for example. But illegal immigrants also use government services. For example, most are without health insurance and will use clinics or hospitals for medical care. Many of these facilities are funded in whole or part by tax dollars. Some undocumented workers send their children to public schools or collect government assistance, even if they're not paying into the tax system that supports these services.