It would work if you beefed up border control. Otherwise I agree: its a waste of time.
Then its not amnesty, which is, according to Webster, "the act of an authority (as a government) by which pardon is granted to a large group of individuals."Amnesty programs aren't outright forgiveness they usually involve fines, backtaxes, and citizenship requirements.
Allowing otherwise law-abiding people to "buy" their way in through payments of back taxes or other means would be something different, which I could go along with. But some people either will not, or will not be able to, meet those requirements. They will have to be deported. But none of this breaking up of families crap. The law should be changed to allow only children of legal residents to be considered citizens. If you're not legal, your kids aren't either. The whole family goes back.
Absolutely! In fact, that would be the FIRST change I would want to see: make it far more dangerous, and expensive, for those who hire illegals. And executives of companies who hire the illegals should face prison sentences if they knowingly allow illegals to be hired. And tax evasion laws should already be usable to nail these companies, since they can't be withholding income taxes on undocumented workers.I think if you want to punish the illegal immigrants with forced deportation you need to make it unwise to hire them, if they can't get jobs they probably aren't staying in the US. Raise the fines on the companies by 400% if you want to take a punitive route. Jail executives who aid and abet illegal hiring. In that environment I could see a more punitive program for dealing with illegal immigrants.
And these are the ones who should pay the steepest penalties, with the longest prison terms. Forging legal documents is a felony, if I'm not mistaken. Start charging these people, and put them on trial, and if they are convicted issue the steepest penalties the law allows, which should include forfeiture of properties, similar to what the drug laws allow.But in the current situation they're practically aided across the border by American companies who will forge documents for them so they can pay them minimum wage (or in many cases less).