“Day Without Immigrants

.....themselves to be gulled into accepting "supply side (voodoo) economics" in immigration. Hands-off, market driven solution. And it is working as poorly as it always has in economics.

My solution, with rationale:

Enforce the laws against hiring illegal aliens and do it vigorously and fairly, big and small business...and no foisting responsibility off on "subcontractors"...if you find illegals working at an establishment, the owners are as liable as the subcontractor....(see Wal-Mart's weaselly cop-out). If a corporation is found to be a repeat offender, the SEC would suspend trading of the corporation's stock for a period of time, duration proportionate to frequency and scale of the offense.

Deport any illegal who commits a felony in the US. After serving the required sentence. If the nation of origin won't accept them back, then a surcharge of, say, 50% of the sentence is added for the additional crime of illegal entry.

Illegals who can document their residence in the U.S. for at least 3 years may register for citizenship.
They must:
Have no felony convictions.
We need citizens who are contributors to the common good, not those disposed to criminal behavior.

Be competent in English, US History, and Government.
We need to have something that binds us together, and it shouldn't be race, religion, culture, but it should be language, as it allows for us all to do the vital democratic duty of communicating and contending our ideas in means that are politic. It also removes a major element of the idea of "alienness", of being just too different, too incomprehensible, too different to be ONE OF US.

Successfully complete public service proportionate to the length of time in the U.S. Those with the longest residence get first consideration, but also have to perform the most public service.
The concept here is that they have transgressed against public good by coming here illegally and should be punished, but they have also been of value, their works and contributions should be a mitigating factor. So, public service is a sensible punishment, since they will become citizens and so there is no need to deter them from ever again breaking immigration law, as they can't ever become "illegals" again.

The illegals get a provisonal or probationary citizenship for a period of years that is inversely proportionate to the length of residence in the U.S.
This, coupled with the process initiation encourage long time residents to own up to the length of time in the U.S. and to accept the longer period of public service. The idea being that the longer you have been here, the more negative impact the illegal would have had. Balancing the carrot and stick.

"Liberalism is trust of the people tempered by prudence. Conservatism is distrust of the people tempered by fear."
William Gladstone, 4-time Prime Minister of Great Britain.