This power rests with the INS, which must back the policy which means that the Administration must back the policy.
That is not going to be easy, as the press, liberal lawyers and judges and of course the DNC will wage a propaganda war that will make their war against Joe McCarthy seem like small potatoes.
The only way to clean up the illegal mess is incrementally.
The first step is to to deny a drivers license to anyone who is not a citizen, a power that the States do have.
It has already been implemented in Florida and elsewhere post 9-11, and is being resisted in Democrat conrolled states like California.
People without a license can then be held as possible illegals and turned over to INS and deported in small batches without a lot of fanfare.
I see you understand the problem. You said it much better than I did, and in less words! :-)
Now, most Sheriffs are political minded folks and would require the backing of some of the officials in the County and preferably some in most of the towns and cities.
In Nevada they are up for a four year term, but I think in four years they could prove that this idea will work, especially to the taxpayers.
The reason I choose a lesser populated County is that way you have less people to convince and less people against you, also there is a smaller amount of taxpayers who currently are paying for these illegals.
That's probably true. They should clean up the worst problems first and those would be the easiest. They should end the practice of anchor babies and family reunification which lets people easily get onto welfare programs and very often lets in people who never intended to work. They should clean up the Social Security databases and start ridding this country of conterfeiters and those dealing in stolen and fraudulent documents. People coming to use our hospitals for free should be sent back, stabilized first if needed but they have hospitals in Mexico.
The only reason for this is because the Democrats know that the Sheriff is the LEO who can start enforcing immigration laws in his/her County anytime they wish and tottaly screw up their diversity plans.