France and The US: Illegal Immigration and Unemployment Impact Comparison (illegal immigrants, Mexican)

[LauraC]

According to today's' UK Times, if Sarkozy wins in France they expect more rioting in France and say as interior minister he had a zero tolerance policy on crime and illegal immigrants. The mayor of some Paris suburb with a high immigrant population said there are reasons to be vigilant. 8,000 riot police are on standby in the suburbs. If I remember correctly, the last time rioting happened in France it was tied to unemployment and immigrants (more specifically, youthful unemployed ones).

My question in this forum is-- If we let all of the illegal immigrants that are here in the US, stay in the country, what would happen if there was a huge upturn (for whatever reason) in the unemployment rate (sudden or gradual) in the US?

I mean, right now the US unemployment rate is fairly good but how would it impact the illegal immigration issue if the unemployment rate (for the country) suddenly went south. Would they go home? Would there be rioting? Would there be illegal immigrant crime/looting? Would there be unemployed citizen crime (assault/property damage) against illegal immigrants? Who would lose jobs first, citizens and/or cheap labor? Does it make a difference that US illegal immigration is largely Mexican and French illegal immigration is largely Islamic? There is no right or wrong answer. Just want to know your opinion of what you think would happen.

As far as I can remember, US illegal immigration impact has always been discussed during times of a low overall unemployment rate in the country.