>so why pretend to care about those who DO steal
>opportunities from people who are already legal citizens of
>the country.

The economy is not just workers. We are all workers and consumers. Immigrants do take jobs, but their presence also makes the economy larger and therefore tends to lead to the existence of more jobs.

Immigrants buy things just like anyone else. In fact, the poor tend to run through most of their income, so one would expect their presence to be particularly valuable in the economy (not to say that immigration means poverty, just that there's a correlation).

I'm not an economist, but my understanding is that historically the presence of immigrants (legal and otherwise), has been a major element in the growth of our overall economy.