How about these specifics?

In an April 12th letter, a reader agrees that illegal aliens who commit crimes (we assume meaning “other than illegal entry into a sovereign nation”) cost us a little for deportation for minor offenses and housing for major ones. But he complains that concerns about other costs are not specific enough and claims that “just like regular citizens”, they pay taxes that support the system. Other than sales tax, that's simply not true.

Now, despite the fact that years of intentional weakening of records-keeping by Progressive and pro-illegal groups makes it difficult to trace, Homeland Security, eVerify, state records and other entities show that we lose annually:
-$2,000,000,000 in various food assistance;
-$2,500,000,000 in Medicaid;
-$3,000,000,000 in jail/prison housing;
-$12,000,000,000 in education for actual illegal aliens;
-$17,000,000,000 in education for “anchor babies” and their families (those improperly granted citizenship by intentional misinterpretation of USC title 8 and 14th Amendment);
-$12- 20,000,000,000 in welfare by individual states’ Citizens;
-$50,000,000,000 in welfare by U.S. Citizens;
-$200,000,000,000 in job loss to Citizens (recent studies showing there are very few “jobs that Americans won’t do”);
plus, in 2005:
-over 4,000,000 illegal aliens brought with them 6-10 million pounds of cocaine and 30-60 million pounds of marijuana;
-240,000 illegal alien sex offenders had to be found, convicted and housed.

Now, when Al Qaida and other enemies are trying their best to kill your family, tens of thousands of unknown persons cross our borders every week, carrying God knows what. Last month, a blue-collar rancher in Arizona, going to “help some illegals in distress”, was murdered on his own land.

Let me be clear: we need a flow of bright, hard-working aliens (like my grandparents) to keep America fresh. But there are over 6,000,000,000 people in the world, and most would like to be in America. We CANNOT possibly accept them all. And those who simply happen to live nearby (or in China, Russia or anywhere else) CANNOT just be given a free pass on violating our laws.