You're onto something, but I don't think you have it quite right yet. There's a pony in the box, but it's still covered with manure. We have:
- Innumerable illegals who have set up housekeeping, married (citizens or other illegals), spawned offspring who are citizens, work in all strata of the job market, and otherwise participate in society.
- Some non-pernicious illegals who are undesirable because they can't or don't contribute to society.
- An inept INS that's in need of a complete overhaul.
- A subculture of pernicious, undesirable illegals who are bent on infiltrating and ultimately destroying our country through selfish criminal acts or as members of insurrectionist groups.
For the sake of argument, let's classify illegals as "desirable" and "undesirable". (It's beside the point, but I classify citizens the same way....) The adage "it takes one to know one" comes into play. Right now, desirables have no incentive to rat out undesirables because they risk getting exposed in the process.
So maybe the plan is to let the desirables buy (literally) some time and remove the risk of identifying other illegals to a reformed INS.
I don't know -- it's just something to think about....