IMO anyone who claims that they will legalize the lawbreakers without a path to citizenship is just blowing smoke. Besides giving the Dems an issue, I doubt the courts would allow what amounts to second class citizenship.
I’ve been saying here for at least a couple of years that the first time you give them any ‘legalization’ it opens the lawsuit floodgate to citizenship for exactly the same “second-class” citizen reasons you cited.
In that regard, while amnesty isn’t citizenship in the literal sense, it very well effectively is.
The entire point of this whole “immigration reform” which won’t even say “folks, we have a severe illegals problem” boils down to somebody not wanting to enforce existing laws. And, the “reform” part of those platforms always involves some form of legalization. The only “pathway” these people should get is one back to their country of origin.