I understand what you're saying. It was one of the examples I gave above. But it doesn't change the 1 in 4 ratio of illegals that collect. It just changes the number that would possibly leave; though in actuality virtually none would. Though 1:4 households receive aid, very few of those households receive the kind of day-to-day living aid that most people think of when they think of "welfare". The vast majority of that aid is given in the form of medical aid almost all through walk-in clinics, because it's one of the few social services available completely anonymously. Cutting someone's medical care, even if it could be done (and it really couldn't without violating some of our basic human rights tenets) isn't going to have them rushing back to Mexico.
I'm all for getting illegals off welfare. Hell, I'm all for getting virtually everyone off it. But that problem is vastly overblown by certain aspects of the media. Food stamps and other direct government payout programs are not heavily burdened by illegals. IIRC, Illegal households account for less than 5% of those collecting food stamps. The whole "illegals having kids to live off the welfare state" thing is way overblown. The American citizens that abuse those programs are a MUCH larger problem in the grand scheme of things, whether or not they 'deserve' to use such programs.
Just to throw one positive tidbit in, it's only fair to mention that more than 5% of the current US military consists of illegal immigrants -- a small sample of those that want to do what they can for our country and become citizens the only way they can since the system is so screwed up. Many of them have even died in Iraq recently, including the first casualty we sustained. I'm not gonna go so far as to call us square or anything, but that's certainly got to amount for something.
