Even if they gave amnesty to those currently here, it wouldn't stop others from coming after that.
Very true - and that is why any program of immigration reform needs the following elements:
Better border enforcement
Better tracking and enforcement of visitor visas
A relatively counterfiet-proof national ID card
Better regulation of employers, including small businesses and households
A guest worker program
Health care for immigrants
Review and potential modification to current immigration policies that permit extensive extended family migrations
Orderly program to address those undocumented immigrants and their families already here.
Unfortunately, all of these elements interlock:
Implementing them piece meal has little probability of success; joining them together in a "comprehensive" reform program seems politically unattainable (no program is left enough for the liberals nor right enough for the conservatives) - so we seem destined to continue to lurch along the increasingly chaotic path we are on.
der Brucer
Please to note:
Any Democrat that says he will cooperate with the Republicans to find a solution, will lose his nomination; any Republican that says he will cooperate with the Democrats to find a solution will also loose his nomination. So, November will find most candidates running on a platform of noncooperation - not exactly what the Founders intended.