text: why is illegal immigration such a hot issue now when people have been crossing the border illegally for the? last 30 years ? illegal immigrants, themselves, brought this issue to the forefront when they marched and protested and demanded rights and waved their flags in our streets last may.  they brought themselves to the attention of the citizens of the usa!  suddenly, people started noticing the closure of hospitals due to being inundated with illegal immigrants who do not pay for their medical treatment.  suddenly, people started looking around and seeing the devastation of their towns and neighbourhoods with illegal immigrants over-housing residences and overburdening schools and causing the education of their own children to be degraded and their neighborhoods to become unsafe and squalid due to over-housing - 10 or more people in a residence meant for a family of 4?  this causes safety hazards for purposes of fire and overburdens the sewer systems, garbage removal, parking on the streets, and lowers the property values of the homes in the neighborhoods, etc.  suddenly, people realized that the reason they weren't able to find work in occupations they used to be able to earn a decent living in, such as construction and manufacturing, etc. was because of illegal immigrants who were willing to work for far less and usually "under the table" for cash, which illegal immigrants are willing to do because then they don't pay taxes on their income.  an american cannot work for that cheap, because they do have to pay income taxes!    this is a hot issue right now because of the huge number of illegal immigrants in the country now and the fact that they are pouring in at greater and greater numbers daily.  previously, mostly only border states and towns were more aware of the illegal immigrants, but now they are starting to move further north and more and more states and towns are finding themselves negatively affected to a level that they can no longer turn a blind eye to it.  illegal immigration is devastating our great country and the time has come to put a stop to it, however we have to do it.  the citizens of the usa have had enough and are no longer able to support the poorest of the poor from all the other countries of the world because we are needing to look after our own poor, first.