The ESF is so large now that there have been Congressional hearings on the matter and SSA has hired beltway bandits to help them solve the problem.
Some question my interpretation of what's in the ESF but I remain convinced that here indeed are the employers who hire (knowingly or unknowingly) ILLEGAL immigrants by the millions.
We don't need shiny new laws to invite them to come forth. Efforts to date such as employer "no match" letters have been met with a storm of protests from the immigrant "rights" industry and sundry vested interests. If government has no will to enforce laws a shiny new law will just be a joke.
The "guest worker" plan will in effect legalize the current situation after adding a few bells and whistles and most importantly give the government something to wave in the faces of anti-ILLEGAL immigrant folks (citizens) and tell them to shut up and sit down. IMO.
Thanks. I've always wondered how they got away with that. I have heard, btw, that most employers know they're hiring illegals, but these phoney papers give them enough cover not to get arrested. Actually, it's pretty obvious that the government knows it, too. I vaguely recall some effort to send out letters and, yes, you're right, there was hysteria from the usual suspects.
Personally, I'm in favor of the guest worker program, because it will (in theory) provide a means of getting definitive identification of the participants and also (in theory) make it possible to locate them and make sure they come and go in the appropriate way and on time. However, any program is only as good as its enforcement, and it remains to be seen if there is any serious intention to enforce the regulations. One of the problems we have in discussing this is that very little in the way of a concrete proposal has actually been offered, so we don't actually know what the proposals are relating to enforcement (or even the rules to be enforced).