>No, just offering them a chance to become clean and repay whatever debt they incurred (taxes, Social Security etc). Which is more penalty than what the system is currently doing against their employers - who are actually handsomely rewarded, by being allowed to pay these illegals below standard wages, not paying any dues for them... And the balance comes from your and my pocket then... you do the math.

Actually I would be very surprised if many of them could repay whatever debt they owe. With the low wages many of them paid, as you pointed out, that would be very difficult.

>How about paying the fee over some time? Nobody can expect these guys to cough up a thousand bucks on the spot. Give them a year, they'll manage. And, knowing the blazing speed of INS (or whatever are they called this week), that year may take about three years to get started.

As I understand it, many of them are just surviving. Make it 100 years, and you still have the same problem.

>Of course, the best course of action would be to stop the shameless exploitation of their native countries; had they had some chance of prosperity (or even survival) there, they wouldn't be coming here. But forget that I said this, you don't believe there's any such thing as shameless exploitation of other countries, do you?

I certainly do believe there is shameless exploitation, but I doubt that is the sole cause of their problems.