*  Southern Border Hazards

Smugglers and immigrants will go through dangerous and deadly areas to get through across the borders. A study by the American Civil Liberties Union and Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission estimates that 30 percent of the 390 people whose bodies were recovered in 2008 died due to exposure to extreme heat. Those left behind often lack food and water, and face little chance of survival

*  Kidnappings

Criminal gangs have also been known to lie in wait near immigration checkpoints where illegal immigrants will hop off the train to avoid identification.. Assuming the average ransom price has not risen even further since 2009, and a possible 22,000 kidnappings annually, these smugglers and criminal organizations could be making more than $50 million a year from ransoming their victims.

*  Sexual Violence and Trafficking

One in every five aspiring immigrants passing through Mexico is female, yet as many as 60 percent of these women and girls will experience sexual assault during their journeys. There are a number of ploys used to lure women into human-trafficking rings—the promise of marriage or a job, or scare-warnings of being kidnapped by traffickers while traveling unaccompanied to the U.S., or running out of money on the journey north to the U.S. border.

* Tragedy by Sea

In 2010, the U.S. Coast Guard interdicted 2,088 illegal immigrants off the coast of the United States. While the number of interdictions has consistently declined over the past six years, previous estimates count as many as 50,000 people attempting to make the maritime journey illegally from the Caribbean each year. The majority of these travelers set sail from Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic. 

*  Societal Costs

The damaging effects of partial-family migration are also of serious concern. The absence of a single family member, such as when a father leaves a family, can cause an acute vacuum within the family. For a wife losing her husband, or a child losing his father, the psychological impact can be enormous. A young boy may well base his philosophy on education, work, and personal responsibility on his father’s actions, which may eventually result in him emulating the father’s illegal migration.

*  U.S. Response

The human tragedy of illegal immigration has been called a humanitarian crisis by groups from the American Civil Liberties Union to the Immigration Policy Center. Rather than proposing serious solutions for securing the border and combating violence and human smuggling, however, this designation has been used to draw the wrong conclusion—that the U.S. needs less, not more, border enforcement.

• Giovanni Peri, an economist at the University of California concluded that in states with more undocumented immigrants,  skilled workers made more money and worked more hours; the economy’s productivity grew. From 1990-2007, undocumented workers increased legal workers’ pay in complementary jobs by up to 10%
• Heidi Shierholz, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, told me. Shierholz also said that “there is a consensus that, on average, the incomes of families in this country are increased by a small, but clearly positive amount, because of immigration.
• The benefit continues to increase over time because as the baby boomers retire, the post-boom generation’s burden to finance their retirement is greatly alleviated by undocumented immigrants. 
• Stephen Goss, chief actuary for the Social Security Administration, claimed undocumented workers contribute about $15 billion a year to Social Security through payroll taxes. They only take out $1 billion (since very few are eligible to receive benefits). So overall all, undocumented workers have contributed up to $300 billion, almost 10%, of the $2.7 trillion Social Security Trust Fund.

•  Undocumented workers undercut wages and take jobs that would otherwise go to Americans
• Many undocumented workers use social programs (hospitals and schools) that cost taxpayers and add to our $16 trillion national debt. 
• Similarly skilled native-born workers must choose between accepting lower pay or not working in the field at all and labor economists have concluded that undocumented workers have lowered the wages of U.S. adults without a high-school diploma which is about 25 million of them, by 0.4% to 7.4%

• Undocumented immigrants still pay taxes 
  • $11.6 billion in state and local taxes (2013)
• Ways to increase tax pay from immigrants
  • Legalization
    • They become legal and get better jobs, therefore increasing their tax payment. 
  • Executive Action (DACA, LPR, DAPA)
    • They also pay more but only 5 of the 11 million people would get into those programs. 
  • Though undocumented, immigrants "are adding value to the U.S. economy, not only as taxpayers, but as workers, consumers, and entrepreneurs as well."
  • "If they had legal status, they would contribute even more."