“Most illegals are Mexican or Central American, they compete for jobs with unskilled American workers (which, incidentally, have the highest unemployment rate).”
They’ve taken a lot of jobs from carpenters, roofers and such in may area; not exactly unskilled workers. I agree legalizing them won’t fix the unemployment (while deporting them would help); the biggest driver for amnesty is that our rulers want these people paying taxes (particularly Social Security, which you don;t get refunded each year with an earned income tax credit to boot). These invaders know the deal, and aren’t interested; any proposal that requires them paying hundreds or thousands of dollars up front isn’t being advanced seriously anyway.
It has more to do with pandering for votes than with any economic concerns. What they would pay in Payroll taxes they'd get back several times over in earned income credits and a whole host of social welfare programs.
Moreover, if you have an employer who hires illegals and pays them sub-minimum wage (i.e. no payroll tax) under the table now, that same employer won't change his practices just because the Federal Government made the same workers citizens by decree.