You are aware that in 1986 Ronald Reagan granted amnesty to illegals who were in the USA...Let’s do some simple math 1986 + 25= 2011. So anyone here 25 years already has been granted amnesty. Newt’s plan does nothing to change the status of anyone. And he shrewdly knows it.
what you say is exactly true.
However, problem with Newt’s plan is that it allows unlimited opportunity to game the law that he enacts. So the result will be something entirely different from that intended.