The "deport them all now folks" are small in number and certainly no one in Congress is saying that. Attrition thru enforcement or as Romney less than artfully said, self-deportation, should be the response. Otherwise, if you conclude like you do that the logistics and politics are too difficult to overcome, you are left with only one choice--a blanket amnesty like we had in 1986.
Any legislation that allows the lawbreakers to stay and work here, the object of their crimes, is amnesty. So what would you do with the 12 to 20 million who are here "in the shadows" or "members of their church, little league, PTA, etc.?"
My solution is this: secure the border for real, stop government hand outs and benefits to non citizens, deport felons as arrested. If we did that, and just that, this situation would unravel itself in 2-3-4 years to a large degree. It would not be perfect, but there would be a vast improvement.
This situation evolved over 60 years of a porous border. There is absolutely nothing that will make it go away quickly. There just isn’t.
We also need to enact laws for all the greedy biz owners who hire millions of these people, over and over, as they count their profits on the backs of tax payers.
And end public assistance for anyone here illegally.
The evil corrupt have attempted to stop measures such as these at every turn. We need to force these businesses into mandatory verification of citizenship for every single employee. Like a mandatory E-verify with teeth..
Otherwise thousands of these criminal biz owners will continue to bait millions of these illegals to enter.
If caught hiring illegals, they need major fines, 2nd violations we seize their businesses and jail their butts.