Fresh from an "immigration tour" spread over 59 days across his 4th Congressional District, U.S. Rep. Bob Inglis said Monday he has concluded that illegal immigration has "significantly" more downside than upside.

"There are very few positives," perhaps only the Social Security payments by illegal workers who will never collect benefits, Inglis told reporters and editors of The Greenville News.

Millions of illegal immigrants, including tens of thousands in his district and across South Carolina, are taxing local hospitals and schools while fostering a decline in respect for the law, he said. At the same time, some are being exploited as "economic slaves," Inglis said.

Inglis said that he now believes Congress has the political will to undertake a border crackdown and require prospective employers to use federal sources to verify Social Security numbers before hiring job applicants.

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His own "action plan" consists of the Social Security number check, securing the nation's borders from illegal immigration, a guest worker program that does not include another amnesty and decreasing illegal immigration while increasing legal immigration quotas, Inglis said.

While it fills jobs that indigenous Americans will no longer accept, unbridled illegal immigration is also driving down wages for all, he said.

But Inglis said creating an effective guest worker program that is both fair and workable remains a challenge because "the guest worker program depends on the president's ability to present a plan involving some punitive action against violators."

During the Oct. 3-Dec. 1 period, Inglis held hall meetings, met with front-line officials at all governmental levels, toured job sites and spent time in a patrol car observing the impact of immigrant gang activity.

Inglis said it helped him develop three guiding principles: