I think we need to disconnect the guest worker program from the "amnesty" part of the proposal.
If an employer has to choose between a legit guest worker and an illegal (regardless of how long they have been here) the employer is going to choose the legit guest worker as a cheeper option.
We can have the fence, we can have the guest worker, we can have biometric cards, we can have empoyer sactions, AND we can leave the hardship applications under the current law process which DOES provide for such long term illegals. (http://www.uscis.gov)
to be honest, I don't like the guest worker program in any context. I could tolerate it as part of a decent deal. But the truth is, if we had a secure border and disciplined law-abiding employers - and demographically it was clear that our workforce needed more participants - just bring them in as legal immigrants. Let's just use legal immigration to solve that problem, this guest worker thing feels slimy to me - like indentured servitude, its not the american way. It's a giveaway to american businesses, who want a "second class" of workers they can pay lower wages to.