1. What are the ethical issues in this case?
2. Is illegal immigration primarily an economic, legal, ethical, social, or political issue? Explain.
3. Are companies that hire illegal immigrants being socially responsible? Evaluate this practice using the Pyramid of CSR introduced in Chapter 2.
4. What are the legal and ethical arguments in favor of continuing to allow illegal immigrants to be hired by businesses? What are the legal and ethical arguments against illegal immigration? Which side are you on? Why?
5. Assess the issue of illegal immigration using a number of different ethical principles, such as the principles of rights, utilitarianism, and justice. What does each principle have to say about the issue of illegal immigration?
6. As a practical matter, should the United States simply allow companies to hire whomever they need?

In June 2007, after many months of negotiations, the U.S. Senate’s compromise on a comprehensive immigration bill failed to pass. The ill-fated legislation contained provisions that would have hired new border patrol agents, imposed a new system forcing employers to verify the legal status of applicants and employees electronically, established a guest worker program, and provided an avenue for legalization for the estimated 11 to 20 million illegal immigrants in the country at the time.1 Politicians on both sides of the issue held strong positions regarding the proposed legislation. One group called it an “amnesty” bill, and another group feared it would cost Americans jobs. Politicians of various stripes supported it because either they approved of the idea or they wanted to be sure that this burgeoning group would someday vote for them.