As a legal immigrant I ' ve never felt even the slightest bit offended by the kind of illegal immigrants we ' re taking about here . Why ? Because we ' re simply not competing over the same jobs or lifestyles . They have zero impact on me . Legal immigrants are facing really stiff requirements to prove their qualifications and that the job couldn ' t be filled by an American . We ' re not offended or losing jobs because of the crowd of illegals standing in front of Home Depot . It might bother me if I was an American citizen unskilled laborer who lost their job because illegals killed my labor market , but there ' s no intersection between those people and legal immigrants . Legal immigrants by and large also can ' t enjoy any of the benefits of being a citizen as you imply . For example we legally have to pay into social security and such , but the vast majority of legal immigrants will have their visas expire and be forced to leave the country long before they can ever claim the benefits from it . The kinds of illegal immigrants that do impact the legal ones , and the skilled labor market , are those committing visa fraud . Companies who lie on their paperwork to hire more foreign workers to fill roles when they ' re past their visa quota , or to hire them for less money than the industry standard for their field this is flat out illegal . Here it ' s still largely the American company who is complicit and abusing the labor market , not the employees .