It should never have been illegal for able-bodied Mexicans seeking work to come to the USA in the first place - our backwards immigration laws, created by Democrats in the 1960s, are themselves wrong. Just bad law.
The fact that illegal aliens avail themselves of government largesse is can easily be fixed by changing government programs. It's not as if there isn't already a ton of waste in these programs to begin with, apart from immigration.
The same goes for taxes - the fact that taxes are too high has nothing to do with immigration - it has to do with a Congress that never met a program it didn't like.
As far as the American public opposing amnesty is concerned. McCain should take it as a message that his stance on the issue is far too lenient.
The fact remains that deporting every illegal immigrant in this country would be an economic and human rights disaster, and our focus should be on eliminating aliens who commit violent crimes or engage in the drug trade.
The illegal aliens whose criminal activities extend to trespassing the border and buying papers in order to stay should pay a far steeper price than McCain is willing to impose, certainly.
But some kind of just punishment and clear road to legal rehabilitation needs to be found.
And neither the let 'em all in people nor the drive 'em all out people have a workable solution.