I believe the simple answer to the problem is to sure up the border enforcement, with real and strict penalties for those who are caught crossing illegally. A fence should be built to cover the entire border. Border patrol should be increased.
Excluding Alaska, Hawaii, and various territories and possessions, the land borders of the continental US make up around 5-6 THOUSAND miles. That's a huge fence. Some of that may be impassable due to natural features of the terrain, but even if that accounts for half, you're still looking at 2-3000 miles of fencing. When people talk about building security fences, they typically mean double or triple fencing, razor wire, motion sensors... and of course, people to man the walls, in sufficient numbers that they can do so effectively.
This would be a fairly difficult and expensive proposition. As for what to do with the people you catch - how do you punish them? Jailing them is expensive, fining them would be difficult, and the threat of being deported is clearly not enough to stop people. Even summary execution might not be a total deterrent, and no one's suggesting that yet.
Any buisiness found to knowingly hire an illegal should pay huge fines.
This would fall under "dealing with those already here", which you say should not be dealt with yet, I believe.
There are currently some penalties in place... United States Code, Title 8, Chapter 12, Subchapter II, Part VIII, § 1324a lays out a few, but the top civil fine is 10000 per instance and the top criminal penalty (and it's only criminal if a pattern of behavior is shown such that the person is obviously intentionally engaging in the employment if unauthorized aliens) is $3K and 6 months in jail.
I agree, though, that stiffer corporate penalties ought to exist.
Those found to be forging documents for illegals should go to jail.
For which I refer you to:
UNITED STATES CODE > TITLE 8 > CHAPTER 12 > SUBCHAPTER II > Part VIII > § 1324a
UNITED STATES CODE > TITLE 18 > PART I > CHAPTER 47 > § 1028
Among, I'm sure, other related statutes at both the state and federal level with regard to document fraud and identity theft generally. The prison terms don't tend to run in the double digits, and the fines rarely reach 5. I dunno what you consider appropriate, but take a look, let me know if you think these need to be tougher. I'm not sure on these.
Once the steady flow of illegals crossing the border is at least slowed, then other bills can be drafted to deal with what to do with those already here. I think they are simply trying to put the cart before the horse.
Well, the current issue, for most people, ISN'T the rate or flow of immigration, it's the fact that 3% of the US population are not legal residents, and the various impacts that has on public safety, public health, and the economy. Stopping even 1,000,000 people from entering the country illegally and remaining here this year (and I don't think the numbers are quite that high yet), will have less of an impact that dealing effectively with those already here, so no solution that proposes just to stop the flow, without also addressing the current population, will be satisfactory. I think it'd be easier to implement effective solutions, though, if they'd break this up in a few pieces and pass separate legislation.
