reached flood proportions (Jones, 1992, p. 287). Their precise numbers are unknowable. According to the Census Bureau, there were between 3.5 million and 6 million illegal aliens in the United States in 1981, though other estimates ran much higher. But the tide was rising. In 1983 over 1,250,000 illegal immigrants were apprehended and deported, almost twice the number a decade earlier, and at least as many were believed to have escaped detection. Once in the United States, illegal immigrants took jobs as farm laborers, janitors, hospital orderlies, dishwashers, and maids--menial work that many Americans shunned (Jones, 1992, p. 287). Under constant threat of discovery and deportation, they were a grossly exploited minority, often forced to accept low wages and poor working conditions and sometimes subjected to physical abuse.
Nonetheless, it is relatively easy to convince the populace that illegal immigration is harmful to the country's economic and cultural foundations. However, harde
...