(CBS) 
About six million illegal migrants are now working in the U.S. The meatpacking industry is one of the many that rely on illegal immigrant labor. Seven years ago, the Immigration Service cracked down on illegal migrants in plants in Nebraska and Iowa.

Mark Reed was in charge of the operation.

"What we did is we pulled together the meatpacking industry in the states of Nebraska and Iowa and brought them into Washington and told them that we were not going to allow them to hire any more unauthorized workers. Within 30 days over 3,500 people fled the meatpacking industry in Nebraska," says Reed.

"We proved that the government without doubt had the capacity to deny employment to unauthorized workers," says Reed.

What happened next?

"We were invited to leave Nebraska by the same delegation that invited us in. The bottom line issue was, please leave our state before you ruin our economy," says Reed.

"The reason is that by putting that factory out of business, not only do we put the unauthorized workers out of business, but we’ve put United States citizens out of business and we destroy, we have the potential to destroy, an entire community," says Reed.

Reed says that this illegal work force is "essential" to our economy.

So what are taxpayers getting for the billions of dollars spent on border security?

"Getting a good story," says Reed. But not a secure border.

One recent attempt to secure the Mexican border is a $14 million pilot-less drone, which scans the desert for intruders and potential terrorists. Fear of terrorism is the latest reason that large bipartisan majorities in Congress have voted to increase the Border Patrol’s budget.

"There are national security implications to porous borders. There really are. I mean, people are coming into this country who want to come into this country for very nefarious purposes, not just to come here to work at the 7-Eleven, no, they’re coming for other purposes," says Rep. Tancredo.

But Cornelius says zero terrorists have been caught on the Mexican border.

"They don’t need to come in that way. They can purchase the best forged documents in the world. The real danger is that they will come through our legal ports of entry with valid visas, just like the 9/11 terrorists did," says Cornelius.

There are now 11,000 Border Patrol agents, three times as many as there were 12 years ago. Only 100 of them are assigned to find illegal migrants where they work. Nearly all spend their time making arrests and dropping migrants off on the Mexican side of the border.

"Talk with anybody that may have been arrested out there in the desert. They’ll tell you, number one, I’m just coming here to get a job because you have a job to give me and you want me for that job. I’m not doing anything really wrong. America wants me," says Reed.

Meanwhile, back in the Arizona desert, Border Patrol Agent Neubauer gets word 18-year-old Abran Gonzales, who had been wandering in the desert for seven days, has been found.

Abran Gonzales had died of thirst just a few hours earlier.

"It’s hard to know that maybe you could have been out there to help this person, and just weren’t able. That’s something you have to deal with and move on," says Neubauer.

Gonzalez came from a small town in southern Mexico. He had gone to the U.S. to earn enough money to buy a new tin roof for his parents’ house. The parents had borrowed $300 for Abran to make the trip, money the parents still owe.

His cousin, Casimira Manuel, was the first to be told:

"The man from the consulate called and told me they found Abran in the Arizona desert and he was dead. He was a quiet kid. He never hurt anybody. He just wanted to work and come back home," Casimira recalls.

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There were 516 bodies discovered in the desert last year - a new record. Including bodies yet to be discovered, the total of migrant deaths is likely to exceed one thousand.

Produced By David Gelber/Joel Bach © MMV, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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