[speekinout]

What it sounds like you're saying is that the illegal workers currently in the country, if legalized, will take up the jobs that foreigners from the south would be coming here for, and thus discourage them from coming.

Not at all. What I've been trying to say is that American employers need to have a way to make sure that their employees are legal (be they guest workers, immigrants or citizens), and that they have to be held responsible for hiring any who are not. Further, they should have a way to hire as many legal workers as they need.

The problem is not the illegals as much as it is employers who need workers, and can't find legal ones.

[inquest]

What I've been trying to say is that American employers need to have a way to make sure that their employees are legal (be they guest workers, immigrants or citizens), and that they have to be held responsible for hiring any who are not. Further, they should have a way to hire as many legal workers as they need.

That doesn't explain why there'd be any greater advantage to making the program available to illegals aliens in the U.S., as opposed to making it available to foreigners who apply in their home countries. It certainly doesn't explain how the former would be more effective at reducing illegal entry than the latter.