You may not like the idea of illegal aliens in the U.S., but…

Illegal presence in the U.S. is different under the law from illegal entry.  Now you may say how can someone be present illegally if they did not enter illegally?  Well, for example, if someone overstayed a visa, they entered legally, but would be present illegally.

Any alien who enters or attempts to enter the United States at any time or place other than as designated by immigration officers…for the first commission of any such offense, be fined or imprisoned not more than 6 months, or both…

So being “just” an illegal alien (as opposed to a murder who is an illegal alien) is not that serious an offense.

Deportation (also called "removal") occurs when the Federal government formally removes an alien from the United States for violations of a number of immigration or criminal laws… 

Removal is a legal proceeding, and an alien who is subject to this procedure has legal rights prior to being removed from the country, including the right to challenge the removal itself on procedural or constitutional grounds… Any alien that is in the United States may be subject to deportation or removal if he or she… Is present in the U.S. in violation of the Immigration and Nationality Act or any other U.S. law…

There are perhaps 12,000,000 illegal immigrants in the U.S.

In 2007, in the U.S. some 4,000,000 people were arrested for major crimes in cities of over 100,000 people.

So, if we first secured the border so no one else could enter illegally, and if we had all local, state and Federal law enforcement officers ignore all other crimes (murder, rape, robbery, etc.) and focus on rounding up illegal aliens, it might only take 3 years to catch them all.  We would not want to release these people on bail (would they show up for their court dates?), so we would have to have jails to hold them all. 

John Demjanjuk is former autoworker from Cleveland who is accused of being a Nazi death camp guard. The Justice Department first brought charges in 1977 seeking to deport him for falsifying information on his application when entering the U.S. in 1952. In January 2008, “only” 30 years later, a Federal appeals court denied his challenge to a final deportation order of the nation's chief immigration judge. He still has avenues of appeal.

Let’s say we could arrest and detain the 12,000,000 illegal aliens, then what? In general the illegal aliens have the same legal rights as a citizen.  Thus, all would have the right to legal representation and hearings/trials and appeals. I wonder how long it would take to deport them all?

What kind of society would we be creating?

I am not suggesting we do nothing about the illegal immigrant situation, but while you may not like the idea of illegal aliens in the U.S., it would seem highly unlikely that we are going to arrest, detain and deport 12,000,000 people. 

First, if an illegal alien commits a serious crime, he or she should be deported. But, what about the vast majority of illegal aliens who are otherwise law abiding?

Amnesty has become a buzz word for the “Right”, and anyone who even hints at amnesty is an immediate pariah in their eyes; so no amnesty.

How about this: We pass a law that provides a time window (6 months? One year?) during which illegal aliens can come into a government office, provide identification and be finger-printed.  They will pay a reasonable fine ($100? $250?). After an appropriate period of time to allow their identities and fingerprints to be checked the illegal alien would return to the office, and assuming there are no problems with the review, the person would get a worker’s card. Anyone stupid enough to give fingerprints and who had committed some crime, and then return to the office, would be held until the legal system could resolve his/her status. 

Of course, the nation would also have to do something about securing its borders, otherwise we will face the same situation again and again.