To some degree, it is important to remember the whole picture.  I am getting a little bit political in the way that I say yes, we have the right to control our borders with immigration and everything like that, but at the same point in time we do this to ourselves in a way being that we make it so difficult for people from poorer countries to get in.  It’s not easy for first world countries by any means, but it’s not nearly as hard for them to get legal status, at least temporarily.  But back to the impact on the economy.  Unfortunately, while we like to blame immigrants sometimes for our current predicament, they are suffering through it just like the rest of us, and the truth is in good times, many of them couldn’t afford to have one stay at home or otherwise, because they take the worst jobs in many cases that most Americans are “too good” to take.  Some Americans like to deny this.  But they make up an integral part of our workforce, and without them the economy would have much greater problems.  Sometimes they take the construction jobs I know very well Americans would take.  But more often, I’ve seen them taking seasonal jobs like fruit picking, I’ve seen them riding their bikes to clean up horse manure, they take shipping type jobs for various companies, essentially speaking they are taking the jobs that no one else actually wants to do, or at least most Americans don’t want to do.  Many times, they don’t even have the luxury of factory jobs that Americans would actually take.  But they do the necessary things that many of us think we’re too good for.