And like I said, I'm not arguing for replacing them overnight. If we have a guest-worker program available only to aliens applying in their countries, it won't make the situation any worse than it is now. Illegals will probably continue to work at their jobs, as before. And if we're able to stem the tide of illegal entry, then we can work on slowly deporting the ones already here. Once the illegals here see the handwriting on the wall, they'd most likely consider it advantageous to go back and apply the right way, rather than risk getting caught sooner or later and being deported permanently.
Above all, there's no reason for insisting, as Bush and many Congressmen do, on making sure this type of program is included as part of a general border-security bill. We can pass a bill beefing up the Border Patrol, or fencing off areas of the border, without a guest-worker plan attached to the same bill, and that would still at least improve the situation. My accusation of the politicians there is that they're trying instead to use the unsecured border as blackmail to get this program enacted over the objections of the people. That's why, left to their own devices, they would never accept any plan to split this into two separate pieces of legislation - which is how they properly belong, because they're really two separate approaches that can work independently of each other.
I think I see where we differ. You seem to want to start by targeting the illegal immigrants. I don't see how we can, because we don't know who they are, or where they are. I want to start by targeting the employers. We know who they are and where they are. I don't, however, want to ruin their businesses.
Don't you think that employers who hire illegals are a major part of the problem? After all, if illegals couldn't get jobs here, they would be less likely to try to get here.