> No Americans will starve without illegal workers.
US farm labor is heavily undocumented-immigrant-dependent. Estimates vary, but undocumented workers make up something like 25–50% of the agricultural workforce, especially in crop production. (In specialty crops this percentage can be much higher, but those won't matter for "starvation").
Remove all of them, fruit and veg production falls 15–20%, dairy & animal products 10-20%. Calorie production has higher variation in estimates, I've seen anything from 10% reduction to 40% reduction, but the whole "undocumented" thing makes it harder to be sure.
In any event, you get double-digit percentage price hikes, and a lot of Americans are already struggling with the current prices.
> If you don't believe in us-and-them remove your front door and replace it with a bead curtain and cook for whoever turns up.
You may call your country your home colloquially, but if you can't tell the difference, if you really genuinely can't differentiate, then you must accept that everyone who welcomes them into their country has already welcomed them into their home.
To your specific list, this sarcasm: sure, because there's no such thing as local sociopaths, I don't live next to a forest with wild boar that I've witnessed breaking into neighbour's gardens, I'm fully aware of local laws about professional cooking, and also I'm funded sufficiently to be a charity.
And for that last point, I will remind you that you've already used the word "illegal workers". They, by definition, work. They pay for themselves.
Without the sarcasm: I live in a smaller nation than the US, which welcomed in a million refugees who weren't even allowed to work (if they did, they'd be… illegal workers). Then the places they had fled from got better and they mostly went back.
> Every $1 taken by illegal workers is $1 stolen from Americans.
You say "taken", I say "earned".
> Every $1 not paid in tax by illgal workers and their employers is $1 stolen from Americans.
So find the employers and punish them, not the workers.
(Hint: the IRS already knows the farmers have a lot of them).
> They do not pay for themselves. They are a net negative on the economy.
They absolutely pay for themselves. They also feed you.
> I am not being sarcastic
I didn't say you were, I said my response was.
> It is even worse by your model, you invite people in my home and force me to cook for them.
You're not being forced to cook for anyone. Rather the opposite: a sizeable part of the people who grow and harvest your crops, the basic ingredients in your meals, who allow you to eat, they're the people who you're complaining about.
Kick them all out of the US? America. Will. Starve.
If you really can't tell the difference between your home and your country, then you must accept that everyone else in your country has as much ownership of it as you, as much right to decide who to invite in.
If you think your analogy is worth anything, you must open your door to all others of your nation, cook for them, like you think you're being forced to do by letting in immigrants.
$1 illegally taken by foreign national is $1 taken from an American.
It might be in exchange for labor but that opportunity is removed from the opportunity pool, by an illegal alien.
They are a net drain on the economy.
The US loses over $200 billion annually in the form of remittances sent by both legal immigrants and illegal aliens.
The top five recipient countries from US remittances in 2021 were:
Mexico ($52.6 billion), India ($15.8 billion), Guatemala ($14.7 billion), the Philippines ($12.8 billion), and China ($12.7 billion).
More recent data shows the numbers have continued growing — in just 2024, $62.5 billion were remitted from the US to Mexico alone, up from $52.6 billion in 2021.
To put that $200+ billion in perspective, that sum would be more than enough to operate the Department of Homeland Security ($140.6 billion) and the State Department ($57.6 billion) combined, and is almost four times the Department of Justice budget ($52 billion).
It is impossible to separate legal and illegals in those figures, of course.
We haven't even scratched other drains such as healthcare and crime.
The majority of US citizens want the illegals gone. Something it sounds like you haven't come to terms with yet.
