Gentlemen:
In some ways most of you are correct. People are here illegally. They broke the law either crossing the border or overstaying their visa. They also broke the law by working.
I ask a question. How harshly would you prosecute someone who is unemployed, actively looking for work, has absolutely no money and steals food to feed their family? I personally would not deal harshly with this situation. The majority of illegal immigrants are here to work to feed their families. We should not deal too harshly with them. All of us break laws to some extent, but very few of us have had to resort to breaking the law to feed our family.
Our immigration laws and processes do not work to our advantage. The issue seems to be too politically charged to make any constructive changes. We need the workers, people want to come and work but the quotas that exist are way too small to meet OUR needs, never-mind the needs of the potential immigrants.
I would rather have the illegal immigrant that is working and productive than the welfare recipient that refuses to look for work. Lets deport the welfare recipients and keep the illegals. At least the illegals want to work.