In Denver, a Saudi Arabian man and his wife are facing charges for allegedly keeping an Indonesian women captive for four years. The woman, an illegal immigrant, said she was paid less than $2 a day to work as baby sitter, cook and maid.

'All of this brings out the worst in society,' Briggs said. 'It's just like a cancer. It just eats at the social fabric. It brings out all kinds of prejudice. They (illegal immigrants) are willing to take the chance, and as long as they're there, there are people willing to take advantage of them.'

If all the illegal workers in America packed up and left the country tomorrow, business wouldn't come to a halt, but experts believe it would be dramatically affected.

With cheap labor no longer available, prices would rise -- for food, child care, household maintenance. Businesses would have to pay workers more, and the demand for workers in some trades would drop. Some smaller providers would be forced to shut down, Justich said.

'It's a problem for people who aren't underground,' Justich said. 'How do they compete? Some businesses suffer. There'd be a void because this is a trend that has been growing over 10 to 15 years and to abruptly disengage this segment of the work force would have an impact.'

This summer, farmers in Michigan and Oregon complained they didn't have enough fruit pickers because of crackdowns on border crossings and raids of farms and communities, though the government said it wasn't doing any sweeps.

Congress is looking at a complete overhaul of the immigration system, with several bills proposed to address immigration reform. One bill would provide temporary legal status for farmworkers who can prove they worked at least 100 days in agriculture since July 2003.

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