No, they aren't. There is a voluntary program in place by which they can check employees, and it should be made mandatory.
Requiring that particular check may disuade some employeers, and if it's cost effective sounds like a good idea. However, it's not going to work with the companies that are already knowingly hiring these people.
Sure it will, because when they check, they and the authorities will all know that there is an illegal alien in their employ, and the atuhorities will know that the employer knows it. Convictions would be a slam dunk in that case, unlike now, where employers have plausibile deniability.
Do you really think these people are going to travel back to their own country and wait in line? You think somewhere between 8 to 12 million people are going to give up their sources of income and travel back to Mexico where they don't have any means of supporting themselves, and wait for permission to reenter the US? Do you think that they're going to risk the chance that they won't be allowed to reenter, and then have to risk the dangerous route or illegally reentering the US again?
Some will leave, and some won't. More will leave under the Tancredo plan than under the Bush plan, which rewards lawbreaking.
We don't have ther resources to round up and deport 8 to 12 million people.
Our court system can't process the inevatable appeals.
We don't have any place to hold the people while processing their deportation.
There's also the fact that if you tried rounding up that many people and forcibly removing them from the country, you'd have open revolt in some communities.
Things would get very, very ugly. People would die. Riots would destroy millions if not billions in property.
No damned kidding. That's why they need to be provided with incentives to self-deport, and negative consequences if they don't.
These people came here because there's nothing for them in Mexico. Many risked their lives in comming here. They are desperate, and telling them to trust that they can come back if they go back to Mexico where they have no job and no place to live isn't going to be comforting to them.
Their comfort is their problem. It's always inconvenient for tresspassers and squatters to have to clear out. So what?
It seems like the majority of people want this now, but as soon as people see what it really involves the backlash against the government would be amazing.
There's a lot of politicians talking tough, but very few are going to support an effective effort to remove the illegal aliens currently in the US. That means they'll talk, but nothing will happen, and the problem will get worse.
So, what possible objection do you have to implementing a program to encourage self-deportation?