The real problem is border security and an orderly society. We need to know who is entering the country and that they abide by the laws. So Congress is preparing a series of get-tough measures. The toughest of which is probably that envisaged by Tom Tancredo of Colorado and J.D. Hayworth of Arizona. Their legislation would deputize state and local police to arrest the millions of illegal immigrants (possibly 12 million) and deport them. Some argue we should somehow drop the arrested immigrants into the interior of their countries. How would this be done, by a gigantic parachute drop?
Any prudent law has to be based on what James Madison in "The Federalist Papers" called the "genius" of the people. The American people are by nature generous, optimistic and tolerant. It is apparent, at least to me, that as we began arresting illegal immigrants the process would soon come to a sorry end. Wretched immigrants would be held up by many Americans now favoring the tough approach as the victims of unjust law enforcers. Civil libertarians would step in. The approach would be brought to ruin, and the "hate-America" crowd would have more spurious evidence that this is a racist and intolerant country. There is a better approach.
We have the capacity to close off the border and we should. We also have the capacity to encourage many of the illegal immigrants to enroll in a program aimed at amnesty, but one that does not make chumps of legal immigrants who have played by the rules. The legislation of the 1980s ended in amnesty and well over half the illegals became law-abiding citizens. The burden on the president and Congress is to close off the border and get the present immigrants to enter amnesty programs.
This is not an easy thing to accomplish, but it is certainly more practical and feasible than the "tough" approaches now being bandied about. The market for immigrants is here and will not evaporate. The Know-Nothings faded away but the bad repute they settled on the country endured -- unfairly, but it endured.