I agree on this point, he should have said “otherwise law-abiding” or “like law-abiding citizens.”
Technically they are breaking the law every day they are here illegally. I don’t like hearing it glossed over, even if he does have but a 30-second window to speak.
However, many (e.g., many wives and children) may have had no practical alternative but to come here when commanded by the head of their household.
I think if welfare recipients can be reviewed for workfare fitness on a case-by-case basis, illegal residents can also. And it would probably be better if this were done by the state rather than the federal government; indeed the welfare/workfare requirements are applied on a county level in my state. But certainly it is feasible and the alternative of mass deportation is not.
Pap. Substitute ANY other country here. "My husband 'commanded' me to come to Bermuda illegally, so the Bermuda government better damn well embrace my arrival and continued residence." Pffft.
I'd be thrown out on my ass, as would said 'commandant' husband, and rightly so.