...it might be a good idea to make it a crime. Actually, I'd say that hiring or employing illegals should be the crime with the greatest penalty. But that isn't anything that could work if done immediately. If our feckless Congress suddenly passed such a bill, there wouldn't be enough Immigration officers to chase the millions of illegals already here, not enough jail cells to house them all, or not enough airplanes to fly them all back home.

And I won't mention what would happen to segments of our economy and sections of the country that would suffer terrific hits. No people to pick the crops, to work in hot kitchens, work in home construction (particularly in right-to-work states like Florida), do landscaping and lawn maintenance, etc., etc.

Now don't tell me that these people are displacing unemployed Americans. Americans simply won't work that hard for the amount they are paid. (I just had a major landscaping job done and eight Mexican workers got more done in a day and a half than any other group I had ever seen. Before that I had pavers put on a driveway by six Brazilian workers. Not a word of English among them and they worked for the better part of a day bent over, lifting heavy stones and mixing concrete. Older American workers couldn't do that physical work. Younger ones simply wouldn't work that hard.)

But if illegal immigration was made a crime over a period of time, over 5-6-7 years, so employers could prepare for an alternative work force and the illegals could prepare to go home....now that might work.