I think the point is to get rid of the backlog of illegals that have gotten in over the last 20 years or so. From what I understand from LE people, the border is now tighter than it ever has been, and it's no way near as easy as it used to be to slip across. So I think the problem is to clear up the huge number of people who are already here - get rid of the criminals (who Mexico, naturally, does not want to take back), get genuine IDs for the ones who are employed and not criminals, and set some time limits (such as 3 years, for example).
But I think once that large group was dealt with, any new illegal arrivals would be nowhere near enough to fill those jobs. Probably what would happen in the case of a lot of truly low-wage agricultural jobs is that they would be mechanized, in any case.
Yet 1000's still cross our border illegally each day.
Sounds much like the same argument for IRCA in 1986 which was also a promise of just this once and then we will really take measures to deal with the problem. Within no time, fines against businesses employing illegals became non-existent and illegals were flooding across the border. I have seen no data that would support the argument that border control has improved, in fact, most of the data I have seen would support that it is getting worse. A sane process for guest workers would be to require that applications to participate must originate from the individuals country of origin.
the border is now tighter than it ever has been, and it's no way near as easy as it used to be to slip across.
Take a trip to the border.