Have seen similar things written about in the news and online at various points during the last 10 years. But I'm also not sure that the problems cited by opportunist politicians are all about "increasing" numbers as much as they posit that there are already too many. Other sources, even some conservative like The Economist, point to the numbers provided by immigrants both legal and illegal being critical to continued economic growth and being part of an age demographic advantage that the US enjoys over both Europe and China in the coming years. It's a muddy river, that's for sure. Common sense says to me that much more vigorous enforcement combined with comprehensive reform is what's needed. The politics of why such a grand bargain gets undermined by the right would be a whole other discussion . . . and an interesting one.

I do think the political right has some vested interest in the status quo. Economic conservatives and business owners benefit from cheap labor. And social conservatives benefit by having a convenient "evil" on which to lay blame.